President Thabo Mbeki called the attacks, which have uprooted some 30,000 people, a disgrace on Sunday and said his government would act firmly to curb the bloodshed as criticism from African nations grew.

On Monday Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said the violence was subsiding.

"In the past 24 hours there were no violent assaults," he told national television.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said the violence had left 56 people dead, 440 homes torched and 30,000 people displaced while 1,348 suspected perpetrators had been arrested.

"The situation is under control. It doesn't mean though that there might not be some spontaneous eruptions somewhere in this huge country," Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said in remarks also carried on the national broadcaster.

Mobs armed with knives, stones and in some cases guns, began attacking African migrants in a Johannesburg shanty town on May 11. The xenophobic violence has spread to other areas.

Mbeki reiterated his government's position that a minority was responsible for the attacks and that it did not reflect the values of the majority of South Africa's 50 million people.

The SABC said frightened Mozambicans were making their way back home, while 25,000 Zimbabweans, part of over three million people who have fled a political and economic crisis there, were headed for Zambia.

"It's better to go home alive, because staying here in South Africa is so dangerous," one man said.