Pretoria — The first diplomatic challenge facing incoming president Jacob Zuma is whether to host ousted Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana, who has formally asked SA for presidential privileges and security.

Should Zuma agree, Ravalomanana would be the second foreign leader to be exiled in SA and accommodated at taxpaye rs' expense.

Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been living in the country with his family since May 2004.

Foreign Affairs director-general Ayanda Ntsaluba said yesterday there was lot of political groundwork to be done by the Southern African Development Community (Sadc ), the African Union and the United Nations before the atmosphere in Madagascar could be considered safe for Ravalomanana to return.

"Therefore, the government is carefully considering his request and would respond to Ravalomanana soon.

"We believe it would not be safe for him to go back so soon," he said.

Ntsaluba said if Ravalomanana went back now , this would put civilians in danger after an announcement this week in Madagascar that Ravalomanana had set up a parallel government challenging the rule of Andry Rajoelina.

Rajoelina's administration is not recognised by the international community, which has described his takeover as a coup d'etat.

Ntsaluba said the ministerial troika of political, defence and security was preparing to visit Madagascar with Sadc to facilitate negotiations between Ravalomanana's political party and Rajoelina's "illegitimate" govern-ment.

On the preparations for the presidential inauguration ceremony next week, Ntsaluba confirmed that 41 countries had indicated their willingness to attend.

Of these, 21 would be represented by their heads of state while 20 others would either be sending their foreign ministers or high level special envoys.

Ntsaluba said the names of heads of state could not be released for security reasons but confirmed that US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would not be attending.

Asked about Sudan , he said although the country had been invited, President Omar al-Bashir would not be coming.

Al-Bashir defied an international arrest warrant on charges of war crimes in Darfur recently and attended an Arab summit in Qatar.

Ntsaluba said because SA was a signatory to various international conventions, it would face the challenge of being required to arrest him.