CAPE TOWN, Aug 26: The son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was planning to leave South Africa before his arrest on suspicion of involvement in a coup attempt in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, police said on Thursday.

Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the FBI-style Scorpions unit which arrested Mark Thatcher on Wednesday, said the 51-year-old businessman had put his luxurious Cape Town house up for sale and was winding up other aspects of his life in the country.

"It looks as if he was planning to leave the country for good," Mr Ngwema said. "We did receive information that he was winding up (his affairs in Cape Town). But we are quite satisfied now with the conditions that are in place."

A Cape Town court on Wednesday put Mark Thatcher, who has protested his innocence, under what amounts to house arrest until he pays a two million rand (300,000 dollars) bank guarantee.

He was also required to surrender his passports and report in daily to police pending another court appearance on Nov 25. South African police said they believed Mr Thatcher helped to bankroll what officials have called a mercenary plot to topple the president of Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer.

Eighty-four foreigners, mostly South Africans, are on trial simultaneously in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea in connection with the alleged plot. Thatcher's arrest and court appearance coincided with bilateral talks in Cape Town between South African and British officials. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the incident had not taken the shine off the annual meetings. -Reuters