Nelson Mandela paid tribute to former South African President P.W. Botha, the defiant face of apartheid who died on Tuesday and is remembered for doggedly refusing to release Mr Mandela from prison for battling white rule.

"While to many Mr Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country," Mr Mandela said in a statement yesterday.

Mr Botha died at home at the age of 90. Mr Mandela spent 27 years behind bars, including about a decade under the rule of Mr Botha, who was at the helm during South Africa's most tumultuous years and struggled in vain to preserve apartheid white rule.

Mr Botha was toppled in a Cabinet rebellion in 1989 and replaced by F.W. de Klerk, who repudiated almost everything the finger- wagging hardliner had stood for, including the laws at the heart of the system of strict racial segregation.

Mr De Klerk guided South Africa's white rulers through the delicate negotiations that ultimately brought the African National Congress (ANC), led by Mr Mandela, to power in multi-racial elections in 1994.

"Our correspondence with Mr Botha while we were in prison was an important part of those initial stages, as was the agreement to a personal meeting in Tuynhuys," Mr Mandela said, referring to secret talks in the then presidential residence.

Mr Botha's death should be a reminder of "how South Africans from all persuasions ultimately came together to save our country from self-destruction", Mr Mandela said.

Mr Mandela's statement reflected the core policy of reconciliation that underpinned his own presidency and which many believe saved South Africa from a bloody transition from apartheid.

That policy earned Mr Mandela the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with Mr De Klerk in 1993.

More tributes poured in yesterday from leading South Africans, including from radical elements in the apartheid-era political divide. Zizi Kodwa, a spokesman for the ANC Youth League said: "We really express our condolences and wish that the Groot Krokodil (Great crocodile) would rest in peace."

"It's good that he lived and experienced democracy, and that black majority rule was not about black domination above whites and that it was not about communists taking over and terrorists running the country."

Asked if Mr Botha deserved a state funeral, Zizi Kodwa said: "We should bear no grudges against people... We are building a new country. Let's show them that we are human, we are not these terrorists that they said we were before. Let's embrace the spirit of reconciliation."

Factbox

The following are key facts about Pieter Willem Botha, often referred to simply as "P.W."

• Elected to Parliament in 1948, appointed Defence Minister in 1966 and served as Prime Minister from 1978 to 1984. Under his premiership, South Africa developed a secret nuclear programme in collaboration with Israel.

• In 1984, following a constitutional reform he had proposed, Mr Botha was elected the country's first state President. His authoritarian style was typified by his 1986 "Crossing the Rubicon Speech" in which he defied international calls for concessions such as the release of Nelson Mandela.

• Mr Botha was toppled in a Cabinet rebellion in 1989 and later replaced by F.W. de Klerk, who repudiated almost everything the finger-wagging hardliner had stood for, including the laws that were the foundation of apartheid.

• Although Mr Botha's security forces killed more than 2,000 people and an estimated 25,000 people were detained without trial and often tortured, he refused to apologise for apartheid and denied he had known about the torture and assassinations.

• He declined to appear when summoned by the state-appointed Truth and Reconciliation Commission chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which, in its final report in 2003, blamed him for much of the horror of the last decade of white rule.