Former South African president FW De Klerk will reconsider attending a 2010 World Cup peace conference while the government remains silent about its decision not to issue a visa to Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

"Mr De Klerk has been in touch with the department of foreign affairs and the presidency to express his concern about the issue, but so far he has received no reaction," his spokesman Dave Steward told Sapa.

The Dalai Lama had been invited to the event, to be held in Johannesburg this week, by three South African Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, former presidents Nelson Mandela and De Klerk and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

The event would be used to discuss ways of using football to fight racism and xenophobia ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

The Dalai Lama was due speak at the conference. The line-up also included the Nobel Peace Prize committee from Norway and actors Charlize Theron and Morgan Freeman.

Tutu, who is in California in the United States, said he would boycott the event if the government refused the spiritual leader a visa.

"Mr De Klerk identifies with the position of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and will reconsider his participation in the World Cup event should the South African government go ahead with a decision not to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama," Steward said.

In SA's 'best interests'

Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said on Sunday that it was in South Africa's "best interests" not to issue the visa to the Dalai Lama, who was due to attend conference to be held on Friday.

He insisted no pressure had been placed on South Africa by the Chinese government to deny the visa to the Dalai Lama.

"As far as the SA government is concerned, no invitation was extended to the Dalai Lama to visit South Africa," Mamoepa said.

"So therefore the question of the visas doesn't exist. This is an independent, sovereign decision. I am not aware of any approach by the Chinese."

Dai Bing, ministerial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Pretoria, said his government had appealed to the South African government not to allow the Dalai Lama into the country, warning that if it did so, it would harm bilateral relations.

South Africa is one of China's key trade partners in Africa, accounting for around 20.8 percent of China's trade with the continent.

A spokesman for the Dalai Lama said he was "very disappointed" by the decision.

"It is true that South Africa, under intense pressure from the Chinese authorities, have denied a visa to the Dalai Lama," spokesman Thubten Samphel told the French news agency AFP.

Opposition parties expressed disappointment at the decision.

Democratic Alliance foreign affairs spokesman Tony Leon said the decision, reportedly taken at the behest of the Chinese government, "flies in the face of all logic".

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille accused the government of hypocrisy.

"We in the Independent Democrats believe that by giving in to China or any other country's demands, the government is saying to the world that we do not afford other peoples the same rights we are afforded in our own Constitution," read a statement from her office.

The Dalai Lama has visited South Africa twice before. In 1999 he took part in the World Parliament of Religions and met then president Thabo Mbeki.

However, a row broke out after Mbeki agreed to see the Dalai Lama again separately. The Chinese government protested and Mbeki cancelled the meeting.

In 2004 the Dalai Lama again visited South Africa as a guest of the African Cultural Heritage Trust.

Sapa