Johannesburg - Parliament looks set to re-investigate the arms deal - and this time former President Thabo Mbeki may have to answer questions he has managed to avoid for years.

Later this month the deal will appear on the agenda of Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) will be moving for a full blown probe.

DA spokesman on the arms deal and their representative on Scopa, Eddie Trent, told The Citizen he was delighted the deal had been placed on the agenda and said he planned to call people to testify before Parliament. Trent would not however release their names.

"That would be wrong of me. Among the witnesses I intend calling will be members of the Scorpions and National Prosecuting Authority, including people who have had serious threats made to their lives."

Trent said he would like to call former members of Scopa who had knowledge of the deal to testify. This would almost certainly include Gavin Woods, the former chair of Scopa who resigned in protest over the deal and Andrew Feinstein - a senior ANC member of the committee who resigned in protest at his own party's handling of the debacle.

Trent would not be drawn on whether he would consider calling Mbeki himself *1. Mbeki is believed to have had several secret meetings with French arms company Thint *2.

With acknowledgements to Paul Kirk and The Citizen.