A statement from the foreign ministry here said South Africa's assurance came during an official visit to Pretoria by foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar to express concern about the LTTE's reported plan to move its headquarters there.

According to the foreign ministry statement, South African foreign minister Alfred Nzo announced that his government was in the process of making `intensive investigations' into the Sri Lankan concerns. It added that Pretoria was also compiling a list of South Africans with connections to the LTTE.

However, it was not immediately clear how much the South African assurances amounted to on the ground. At the moment, South Africa has not legally classified the LTTE as a `terrorist' group, nor does it have legislation to preventany `political' group from operating on its soil. There are also no laws preventing South African citizens from supporting the cause of such a group.

There was no word from the South Africans on how they would translate their words into deeds. But their assurance is already being projected here as a major diplomatic victory by Sri Lanka over its violent adversary. One newspaper triumphantly proclaimed: ``Mandela slams door on Tigers, Kadirgamar mission clicks''.

Kadirgamar's visit to Pretoria was the latest in a flurry of diplomatic moves by Sri Lanka to preempt rumoured plans by the LTTE to shift its `international secretariat' -- its propaganda hub -- from London to South Africa following new anti-terrorist legislation in the United Kingdom.

South African envoy to New Delhi Jerry Matsilla (concurrently accredited to Sri Lanka) flew down here last month at the request of the Sri Lankan government and had extensive discussions with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Kadirgamar.

At these meetings, SriLanka officially expressed its concern about the LTTE plan to make South Africa its next home. Sri Lanka also conveyed its apprehension that the LTTE had smuggled into the country at least one South African helicopter. Another area of concern was that the group was receiving material and financial support from the large Tamil community in that country.

Fears that the LTTE may have access to South Africa's political establishment gained ground when in his address to the UN General Assembly last month, President Nelson Mandela referred to the Sri Lankan conflict as one which the UN had a `responsibility' to end.

Earlier this month, a team of South African diplomats visited Sri Lanka and announced that though most of the Sri Lankan fears were unfounded, their government had launched an investigation into the matter. They also reiterated that the conflict was Sri Lanka's internal matter.

They conceded there was support for the LTTE among the Indian community, a majority of whom are Tamils but said that suchsupport was not backed by the South African government. ``Sri Lanka is more important to us than LTTE politics,'' one of the diplomats declared at a press conference here.