South Africa?s chief prosecutor has denied accusations that President Thabo Mbeki is behind new corruption charges laid against ruling African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma, local media reported yesterday.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Friday charged Zuma, who less than two weeks ago beat Mbeki in a divisive race for the ANC leadership, with corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering. The timing of the indictment prompted claims by Zuma?s supporters that the state president was trying to undermine the new ANC leader.

But the Sunday Independent reported that NPA head Moketedi Mpshe had denied his agency had been improperly influenced. ?It?s absolute nonsense. (Mbeki) does not even know we were going to charge (Zuma) or what we were going to charge him with. It?s got nothing to do with the president?, it quoted him as saying. Mbeki?s spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said yesterday he had no comment on the allegations.

Zuma?s trial, set to start on August 14, 2008, could scupper his chances of succeeding Mbeki as president in 2009. Mbeki cannot stand again for state president but had wanted to remain head of the ruling ANC. The party enjoys massive electoral support, putting Zuma in line for the national presidency.

The charges look set to deepen political uncertainty in Africa?s biggest economy and fuel tensions between the ANC rank-and-file backing Zuma and Mbeki?s government. The one-million-strong trade union body COSATU on Saturday threatened to mobilize its members against the ?political prosecution? of Zuma.

ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula said Mbeki had orchestrated the indictment in response to Zuma?s ANC election win ? sentiments echoed by other Zuma backers the Young Communist League and the South African Communist Party, which with COSATU sits in a formal alliance with the ANC.

Mbalula is also a member of the ANC National Executive Committee, the party?s top decision-making body, which is likely to discuss the charges at a meeting on January 8. The Sunday Times newspaper quoted an unnamed senior NEC member as saying Mbeki could be tackled about the indictment at the meeting.

Zuma?s indictment comes more than a year after an earlier corruption case collapsed on procedural grounds, although the NPA continued to probe allegations he accepted bribes in connection with an arms deal involving a French company. The charges include new allegations linked to dealings with his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who is serving a 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption.

Mbeki fired Zuma as national deputy president in 2005, after Shaik?s conviction, sparking some of the worst infighting in the ANC?s history.