South Africa's ruling African National Congress said today there had been no discussion of changing the constitution to allow President Thabo Mbeki a third term.
Opposition Democratic Alliance leader Mr Tony Leon last week wrote to Mr Mbeki asking that he clarify his position on the possibility of standing for a third term after he completes an expected second five year tenure in 2009.
ANC Secretary General Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, responding on behalf of Mr Mbeki and the party, dismissed the notion as "a non-issue" that had not been discussed.
Under South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, enacted in 1996, presidents are limited to two five-year terms.
"The matter you raise, of the length of tenure of office of the president, has never arisen within our organisation ever since the Constitution was adopted. We have received no indication that this issue will be tabled at any time in the future," Mr Motlanthe said in a letter to Mr Leon.
"We have no power to stop you or anybody else from discussing this or any other issue," Mr Motlanthe said. "But we will not be party to your gratuitous efforts to derive some sort of political mileage from something that is to all intents and purposes a non-issue."