In his quest to discover if President Thabo Mbeki did meet French arms company officials, the Democratic Alliance's Eddie Trent has turned to South Africa's former ambassador to France, Barbara Masekela, for help.

Trent said he tried last week, during the Presidency's Budget vote debate in the National Assembly, to get answers from the president over whether or not he met representatives of the French arms company Thomson-CSF on or about December 17, 1998, "to no avail".

This, he said, had left him with no choice but to ''source the facts from elsewhere''.

Thompson-CSF, now known as Thales and its subsidiary, Thint, are being prosecuted for alleged corruption along with ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Trent said yesterday he had written to Masekela asking if she had arranged the meeting in Paris between representatives of Thomson CSF and Mbeki.

He said that ''the DA has in its possession a fax from B de Bollardiere (senior vice-president of Thomson-CSF) to ambassador Masekela that suggests that this is the case".

With acknowledgement to Boyd Webb and Cape Times.