President Jacob Zuma on Thursday gave the clearest indication yet that Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will be arrested in terms of international law if he travels to South Africa.

Bashir, who became the first sitting Head of State to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March last year, now has an ICC warrant of arrest hanging over him for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

During question time in the National Assembly, Zuma was asked whether Bashir would be arrested if he set foot in South Africa.

"South Africa respects the international law and certainly we are signatories [to the Statute of the International Criminal Court in The Hague] and we abide by the law," Zuma replied.

"Secondly, we reconcile our participation in the process while the leader of that country [Sudan] has the warrant of arrest, on the basis of the African Union (AU) decision."

"The AU took a very deliberate decision and requested the international court to postpone the action against Bashir, given the fact that we're dealing with a situation of violence, that if it acted immediately, it could reverse the situation in Sudan.

"That was done collectively by the African leaders and the message was sent. It was correct to do so, because our view was that if you did that, that situation could have got worse.

"That's what the AU has said. The AU has not said we must not arrest Bashir.

"It looked at the situation and felt it was necessary to move cautiously on this matter. That's what we've done. And that's why we're reconciling the two points," he said.

Pressed again whether Bashir would or would not be arrested if he entered South Africa, in view of the fact all African Heads of State had been invited to the opening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on June 11, Zuma responded in similar fashion.

"In my response, that's the first thing I answered. I answered very clearly that South Africa respects the international law. And that answers the question," he said.