A committee set up to consider applications for presidential pardons for politically motivated offences wants President Thabo Mbeki to extend the three-month window period, the SABC reported on Monday.

The deadline for pardons for offences committed before June, 16 1999, was decided on at a joint sitting of Parliament last year. The deadline was set at April 15, 2008.

People who were denied amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and who had been convicted of sexual offences, domestic violence and certain drug offences could not apply.

Committee chairman Tertius Delport said the reference group had only received a handful of applications and had secured a meeting with Mbeki to discuss extending the deadline and broadening the terms of reference, the SABC reported.

Department of Justice spokesman Zolile Nqayi said the group was asking for the date to be extended until the end of May.