JOHANNESBURG - South African President Thabo Mbeki has said he does not rule out an early national election if he loses the race to lead the ruling ANC to Jacob Zuma.

"I have not thought about that one. We haven't got there yet. I don't know. It's possible, it's possible, yes indeed," he said in an interview with the Sunday Independent.

Mbeki has lost ground to Zuma in the race. The ANC will choose a new leader at a party conference on December 16-20, and if Zuma wins, he is almost certain to become South Africa's next president in elections due in 2009.

Asked what could lead him to call an early poll, he said: "Its a matter that needs to be discussed by the ANC. It's not a personal matter. The ANC is the government ... so I think it would be the ANC that considers a matter like that."

Mbeki rejected suggestions that he would be a lame duck president if Zuma won the ANC contest, saying current ANC policies would continue.

"So whoever is in government would have to implement ANC policies and that is what would happen," Mbeki said.

"I believe these policies remain correct, so it is critically important that, at all times, as members of the ANC, we defend these policy positions and don't get them compromised ... by leadership contests in the ANC."