JOHANNESBURG, August 19, 2008 (AFP) - South Africa's highest court Tuesday deferred a ruling on the closure of camps around Johannesburg for immigrants displaced by sweeping xenophobic violence in May, a senior official said.

'We will only fold vacant camps as people continue to move out and go back to their communities,' said Mbazima Shilowa, head of Gauteng province, which includes the economic hub of Johannesburg and the political capital Pretoria.

'We will not dismantle shelters where people still remain, we will rather consolidate camps with fewer people as running them will be an expensive exercise for government.'

Some 2,000 immigrants remained in the six camps up to August 15, the official deadline set for them to close.

Legal representatives of the foreign migrants approached the Constitutional Court after a failed Pretoria High Court application last week to keep the shelters open.

The highest court on Tuesday reserved judgement after legal teams for the migrants and government failed to reach an agreement on how to deal with the matter.

'We will consider that this matter is of great urgency for both parties, we will consider that when making our decision,' said judge Pius Langa.

The Gauteng government rejected the migrants' suggestion to allow the mediation by the country's human rights commission.

'It is within our power to resolve the matter, there is no need for mediation,' said spokesman Thabo Masebe.

'We are not happy where we are right now, all we are asking for is a structured method to deal with the re-integration of immigrants,' a spokesman of the refugees' legal team, Jonathan Klaaren, said.

'We want them to be given alternatives and treated in a dignified manner.'

The camps were set up after anti-immigrant violence broke out in May, with more than 60 people killed in the attacks.

The violence saw South Africans drive foreigners out of townships, mainly in Johannesburg, where residents accuse immigrants of taking jobs and blame them for high crime rates.