De Klerk responded by calling a whites-only referendum in March 1992 to decide whether negotiations should continue.

Mr. de Klerk said earlier that he would hold a whites-only referendum to approve fundamental changes, because he promised this to the white electorate in 1989.

The party supported links with the Commonwealth, and unsuccessfully campaigned against the establishment of a republic in the whites-only referendum held on 5 October 1960.

Initially, and with reason, Mr. Mandela's African National Congress protested a whites-only referendum that excluded South Africa's majority.

In 1992, de Klerk held a whites-only referendum, with the result being an overwhelming "yes" vote to continue negotiations to end apartheid.

He is drumming up support for a whites-only referendum on his efforts to create a nonracial society in South Africa.

The combativeness is something he mastered two years ago, when he had to defend his policy of racial reconciliation against fierce opposition in a whites-only referendum.

Following a whites-only referendum in favour of a republic in 1969, Gibbs resigned his office and left Rhodesia.

In 1960 a whites-only referendum was held to decide whether South Africa should become a republic.

President De Klerk of South Africa has said the whites-only referendum on democratic reform will be held on March the seventeenth.