Johannesburg - Two South African Nobel Peace Prize laureates have petitioned President Kgalema Motlanthe to establish a commission of inquiry into a controversial multibillion-dollar arms deal, The Star newspaper reported Wednesday.

In a letter dated December 1 and delivered by hand to Motlanthe's Cape Town office on Tuesday, former president FW de Klerk and archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu called on the president to appoint the commission by December 10.

The letter, which was published by The Star, also recommended that the terms of reference of such an independent commission should allow the "widest possible investigation into impropriety and corruption."

In the late 1990s, South Africa embarked on an expensive arms build-up, including fighter jets, submarines, corvettes and other big-ticket items.

The deal has been dogged by allegations of corruption, including against ANC leader Jacob Zuma, who is poised to take over from Motlanthe as president after general elections next year.

Zuma has twice been charged with corruption but both times the charges were thrown out on a technicality.

A businessman and former financial adviser to Zuma, Schabir Shaik, is serving a 15-year sentence for fraud in connection with the deal but so far only one politician, the ruling African National Congress's former chief whip Tony Yengeni, has been prosecuted.

Despite firing Zuma as deputy president in 2005 on suspicion of corruption in the deal, former president Thabo Mbeki resisted calls for an independent commission of enquiry, sparking allegations in some quarters he was covering up for dodgy dealings involving his party.

An official inquiry into the deal in 2001 concluded that the primary contacts had been clean.

Tutu and de Klerk noted authorities in seven countries were already investigating allegations of bribery by British Aerospace (BAe) to obtain a lucrative contract for Hawk jets that cost nearly twice as much as an Italian alternative.

"The urgency of the matter is self-evident. The country is moving towards a general election, and the voters are entitled, in the spirit of free and fair elections, to be informed about what has become a major scandal in the country's political discourse," Tutu and de Klerk said. (dpa)