South Africa's home affairs minister will meet British officials on Wednesday amid concern over fraudulent South African passports found during anti-terror raids.
Ministry special adviser Mike Ramagoma said Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula's meetings in London would focus on boosting co-operation between the two immigration services and were not specifically tied to the passport issue.
Since the September 11 attacks on US cities in 2001, people travelling under passports from some countries have been under more scrutiny from Western authorities trying to reduce their exposure to terror risks.
Mapisa-Nqakula's trip follows several incidents in which South African passports have been found during international police raids on terror and other suspects.
"(There) has always been in the United Kingdom a good understanding that South African passports are quite reliable but we need to deal with individuals who abuse the system," the adviser told Reuters.
Last month two men with South African passports were among a group of suspected al-Qaeda members arrested in Pakistan, while other arrests involving South African passport holders were made in both the United States and Mexico.
And in May, South Africa said police had broken up an al Qaeda-linked cell in the country as part of a wider sweep which also saw police in Britain raid a house where a large number of South African passports were found.
Officials have blamed corrupt home affairs ministry workers for selling the fraudulent documents.
Mapisa-Nqakula was reported as saying there was undue concern over her country's passports after three South Africans were recently refused entry to Britain for failing to convince authorities of the reason for their visit.
"Our passports still rank among those whose integrity remains intact... It is not like their (Britain's) own passports are not found in wrong places. But we don't say their system has no integrity," she told a Sunday newspaper.
British High Commission spokesperson Nick Sheppard said the two countries would look at stepping up measures aimed at detecting fraudulent documents.
"The United Kingdom is very well aware of the issue," he told Reuters. "There is already close co-operation with the South Africans to reduce the risk of people travelling to the United Kingdom with fraudulently obtained passports."