Wellington - New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who has stood down pending four separate inquiries into secret donations to his political party, moved Wednesday to make another public declaration of his innocence.

Peters, who opinion polls indicate faces political oblivion at a general election slated for November 8, made a last minute appeal to give further evidence before parliament's powerful privileges committee on Thursday, Radio New Zealand reported.

The committee, which is considering whether he broke parliament's laws by failing to declare a 100,000 New Zealand dollar (66,000 US dollars) donation from a wealthy businessman, was scheduled to hold its last meeting in private before reporting back to the House of Representatives next week.

Peters surprised all by asking for another public hearing and made the unusual move of asking for representatives of the Serious Fraud Office, which is also investigating what it calls suspicions of "serious and complex fraud" involving other donations, to be present, Radio New Zealand said.

Peters has insisted that he knew nothing of the donation from billionaire expatriate businessman Owen Glenn towards legal bills in December 2005. Glenn told the committee last week that Peters asked him for the money and later thanked him.

Peters' attorney Brian Henry changed evidence about the donation that he had previously given when he appeared again before the committee on Tuesday.

In doing so, he "did nothing to salvage Mr Peters' credibility or prospects of surviving as a minister," the New Zealand Herald reported Wednesday.

But Prime Minister Helen Clark indicated that she was unlikely to do anything until both the privileges committee and the Serious Fraud Office had reported. Commentators said that was unlikely to happen before the election.

Clark's Labour Party is destined for defeat at the ballot after leading a minority coalition for nine years, according to opinion polls, and the conservative opposition National Party has ruled out working with Peters and his nationalist New Zealand party if it wins. (dpa)