JOHANNESBURG, Nov 29, 2007 (AFP) - South Africa's Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu made a thinly-veiled plea Wednesday for the ruling ANC party not to elect Jacob Zuma as leader, urging it to reject anyone who would shame the country.

'The ANC must not elect someone who the country will be ashamed of,' Tutu told The Sowetan newspaper.

'We want someone who the rest of us will not be ashamed of,' added the Anglican archbishop who remains widely respected for his campaigning to topple the whites-only apartheid regime.

Asked whom he was referring to, Tutu merely answered 'undivile mfondini' (Xhosa for 'you've heard me my friend').

However his comments were interpreted as a clear reference to Zuma who is at the centre of a lengthy corruption inquiry which could still see him charged before the ANC holds a leadership conference in the middle of next month.

Tutu last year branded Zuma as unfit to lead the country after the former deputy head of state, who is still deputy ANC president, admitted having had unprotected sex with an HIV family family friend who is less than half his age.

His admission came during the course of a rape trial, in which he was ultimately acquitted.

Zuma is the now the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki at next month's ANC conference after securing the backing of five of the nine provincial branches.

Mbeki, who is trying to stave off the challenge by Zuma, sacked his rival as deputy head of state two years ago after Zuma's financial advisor was convicted of fraud.