The government will send a delegation to Equatorial Guinea to ensure that the trial of eight South Africans arrested in that country for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, will be conducted in a fair manner.

Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced this in Pretoria yesterday following a meeting between herself, President Thabo Mbeki, Nguema and Equatorial Guinea's foreign minister Pastor Micha Ondo Bile.

"We will be sending a delegation to Malabo to help the Equatorial Guinea government ensure that the trial is fair and that all the requirements are met," she said, noting that these included proper conditions of detention.

She explained that the delegation would possibly comprise members from the Justice, Foreign Affairs, Safety and Security and Correctional Services departments.

Questioned on whether the issue of the death penalty had been raised, Dlamini-Zuma said the government would let the trial run its course and would intervene only if it was necessary and if the alleged mercenaries were convicted and sentenced to death.

The eight men are part of a group of 15 held in Equatorial-Guinea and 70 being detained in Zimbabwe who are being accused of conspiring to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government in a coup d'etat, earlier this year.

The Constitutional Court in South Africa will on Monday hear an appeal from the families of the men in Zimbabwe who are asking that the South African government be ordered to seek their extradition to South Africa.

Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe turned down an application last month for an order compelling the South African Government to seek the men's extradition.

Dlamini-Zuma said that the Equatorial Guinea government had expressed a desire to get the trial started and to get it finished as soon as possible.

This feeling, she said, was endorsed by Mbeki.

Yesterday's talks followed the signing of the general co-operation agreement in 2003 and reciprocal agreement on the promotion and protection of investments earlier this year.

"This was a short working visit to see where we are and how we are to implement items we have agreed on," Dlamini-Zuma said.

It was also decided to establish a binational commission with oil-rich Equatorial Guinea to strengthen relations and will soon open its first diplomatic mission in Malabo.

Dlamini-Zuma said the first official would be sent next month to establish the embassy "because South Africa needed a mission to be set up to take care of all that is going on there on behalf of the government."

Dlamini-Zuma said a second delegation would be established to investigate aspects of cooperation within the ambit of minerals and energy and other investments. On Tuesday the government signed a similar agreement with the West African country of Burkina Faso to help map and access its mineral deposits.

Dlamini-Zuma said, Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka would visit Equatorial Guinea shortly to further this cause.

She said Equatorial Guinea had also requested to become more involved in the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) and that South Africa would be sending officials to the country to help advise them on this matter. – Sapa.