Stieg Larsson gave papers to police 'linking Palme murder to South Africa'

Sweden's greatest unsolved murder mystery has taken another twist - revelations that Swedish crime blockbuster novelist writer Stieg Larsson had sent police evidence linking Prime Minister Olof Palme's 1986 murder to South Africa.

newspaper reported yesterday the novelist behind sent police 15 boxes of papers that he said linked Palme's shooting to a Swedish former military officer alleged to have links to South African security services.

Books by Larsson, who died of a heart attack in 2004, have sold more than 75 million copies in 50 countries.

The latest report has made headlines across Sweden, where, just as with Kennedy's assassination in the United States, Palme's killing has spawned a legion of conspiracy theories.

Palme, a vocal critic of the apartheid regime in South Africa, was shot as he walked along a street in central Stockholm on February 28 after going to the cinema with his wife.

A petty criminal was found guilty of the crime in 1989 but was released that year on appeal. Police were widely accused of bungling the investigation.