The Press Ombudsman, Ed Linington, has dismissed a complaint against the Sunday Times by Terry Crawford-Browne of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction.

Crawford-Browne lodged the complaint after a report appeared in the Sunday Times under the headline "Man poses as Mbeki's 'secret agent'".

The report said the National Intelligence Agency had instructed presidential staff to keep away from a man, Bheki Jacobs, who they said had masqueraded as a secret agent reporting directly to the President.

Following the report, Crawford-Browne launched a widely publicised attack on the Sunday Times, accusing the paper of betraying a source.

Crawford-Browne, in his complaint to the Ombudsman, said he had arranged a meeting between Jacobs and a Sunday Times reporter concerning the controversial R43-billion arms deal on condition that the source was not identified.

The Sunday Times told the Ombudsman that its report on Jacobs had nothing to do with the arms deal and that it had not used any information it had received from Jacobs in its coverage of the arms deal.

The report on Jacobs was solely related to him posing as the President's "secret agent" and about bizarre plots to overthrow the President.

The Sunday Times also asked the Ombudsman to take note of Crawford-Browne's conduct in the matter.

The paper said that while Crawford-Browne was keen to hold it to the "ethics of journalism", he took no responsibility for the defamatory remarks he had made about the Sunday Times reporter.

In dismissing the complaint, Linington said to Crawford-Browne: "Your complaint introduced a number of other matters which are irrelevant, but which contain serious unsubstantiated charges against the reporter and the newspaper. I find that out of order and unacceptable."

With acknowledgements to the Sunday Times.