JOHANNESBURG, May 8 (Xinhua) -- South African President Thabo Mbeki accepted the not guilty verdict in the trial of his former deputy Jacob Zuma for rape, Mbeki's office said on Monday afternoon.

    "The Presidency respects the independence of the judiciary and accepts the verdict," Mbeki's spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanda told the SAPA news agency.

    He declined to comment further at this stage.

    Judge Willem van der Merwe, who has presided over the sensational trial since it started on March 6, took more than 6 hours to deliver his much-waited judgment on Monday, which was livebroadcast by South Africa's major television stations and radios."The accused is not guilty," Van der Merwe said before wrapping up his lengthy verdict.

    Van der Merwe said he had accepted Zuma's version of the case. He said pressure groups and individuals should not jump to conclusions and express criticism before having heard all the evidence.

    "The question can also be asked: 'Why would the complainant allege that she was raped by the accused when it was in fact consensual sex that took place?

    "Why would a woman in her position go through all the trauma interms of the trial and publicity when she was not really raped? It is this respect that the reference to previous false rape allegations become of the utmost importance," he said.

    Previously calm-looking Zuma smiled after hearing that he was now a free man and then was surrounded by his family members and aides who broke into cheers inside the court.

    Thousand-strong pro-Zuma crowds shouted in excitement outside the court, where they have waited for the outcome for hours.Punching their fists into the air they shouted "Zuma, Zuma."Zuma then was escorted to a nearby square to address the jubilant crowd in his native Zulu language.

    Zuma, 64, was accused of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman, referred as "Miss K" during the trial, in the guest bedroom of his Johannesburg home on November 2 last year.

    Zuma has maintained that the two had consensual sex in his own bedroom.

    The acquittal could revive Zuma's political ambitions, but his troubles are far from over, analysts said. He is to go on trial again in July for corruption.

    Zuma, an anti-apartheid veteran, spent 10 years in jail from 1963 on Cape Town's Robben Island as a political prisoner.The complainant, daughter of an anti-apartheid struggler and friend of Zuma, alleges that Zuma raped her in the guest room of his Johannesburg home while she was staying overnight during a family crisis.

    Zuma argues that after receiving a number of sexual signals from her, including the wearing of a short skirt, he gave her a massage and they had a consensual sex in his bedroom.

    Zuma, who still retains as the deputy head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, was charged in a low key court appearance on December 6.

    The trial of Zuma has gripped the nation and aroused frenzied debates on critical issues about power struggles and divisions inside the ANC, gender-based abuse and HIV/AIDS since it began on February 13 and has been intensively covered by South African media.

    Both the complainant and the accused testified that a condom was not used, a bombshell news in South Africa whose HIV/AIDS epidemicis among the worst in the world.

    While anti-AIDS activists and advocators of women's rights cried foul for what Zuma had allegedly done, his die-hard supportersinsisted that the rape claim, together with a previous charge of corruption, was driven by political motives to prevent him from becoming the next president of South Africa.

    Zuma also faces separate charges of corruption and will stand on trial in July. He was sacked by President Thabo Mbeki as the country's deputy president in June, last year.

    Zuma is a popular politician in South Africa and a veteran of the ANC-led struggles to end apartheid. At one stage he was championed by trade unionists and those on the political left as alikely presidential candidate to succeed Thabo Mbeki when he completes his term in 2009.

    But analysts said the rape accusation has caused damages to Zuma's credibility as a political leader and the charges of corruption could further leave his political career in tatters. Enditem