South Africa's ruling ANC executive will ask President Thabo Mbeki to bring deputy party leader Kgalema Motlanthe into the government to ease the transition to a new president, a party spokesman said on Monday.

The African National Congress executive has decided Motlanthe, an ally of party president Jacob Zuma, should have a government post to help manage the transfer of power when Mbeki steps down next year.

Zuma, who defeated Mbeki for the ANC leadership in December, is almost assured of becoming president if he is found not guilty in a corruption trial in August.

Motlanthe, an intellectual popular among Zuma supporters, could become a compromise candidate for president if the ANC leader is forced to bow out of the race.

Analysts have said appointing Motlanthe to the cabinet could help heal some of the differences that have developed between Mbeki's government and the Zuma-controlled ANC and allow for an easier transition in 2009.

Local media have speculated that Motlanthe could replace Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, an Mbeki ally who took over from Zuma when he was fired in 2005 in an arms deal scandal.

ANC spokesman Steyn Speed said the NEC decision was aimed at ensuring continuity.

"It is in the context of ensuring continuity as this government's term (ends) in 2009 and the incoming government should the ANC win the elections," ANC spokesman Steyn Speed said.

Speed said ANC officials would relay the National Executive Committee's request to Mbeki.

Zuma faces money-laundering, racketeering, fraud and corruption. He has stirred investor fears with his ties to trade unions and Communists. Zuma has said he will step down as ANC leader if he is convicted.

The ANC's electoral dominance in the country virtually assures that its leader will become state president in 2009.