The South African cricket authorities, who cancelled on the weekend a tour to Pakistan because of security concerns, are to meet tomorrow to discuss a revised itinerary.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has said it will claim damages of approximately US $7 million from the United Cricket Board if the latter does not reverse its decision to cancel the tour.

The UCB confirmed in a media release today that it had received a letter from PCB chief executive Rameez Raja offering alternative tour fixtures.

"We understand how much this tour means to Pakistan and we have always done everything we could to ensure the tour could go ahead," UCB chief executive Gerald Majola said.

"We will continue to make every effort to find alternatives that do not pose an unacceptable level of risk to our national team."

South Africa has been particularly concerned about matches scheduled for Karachi and Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, following consultation with security experts and South Africa's high commissioner for Pakistan.

The tour was given the go-ahead last week, but the UCB subsequently decided to call it off because of a bomb blast in Karachi on Friday.

But the revised tour itinerary drops Karachi and Peshawar as match venues, limiting the two Tests and three one-day matches to Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad.

Majola is to discuss the amended itinerary with his management committee on Tuesday and will also receive a full briefing from security consultants.

South Africa's coach Eric Simons and captain Graeme Smith will be included in the process. The committee will also consult the South African government before taking any decision.

"We made a decision on Saturday, based on information from our security consultants who had also been in contact with intelligence agencies," Majola said.

"That information was that the situation in Pakistan, particularly following a bomb blast in Karachi on Friday evening, meant that sending our team to Karachi on Sunday as planned would have constituted an unacceptable risk.

"We will continue to assess the security situation and look at it specifically in relation to the proposed alternative fixtures."

Meanwhile, Pakistan's stand-in captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, made a last-ditch plea today for South Africa to go ahead with the abbreviated tour.

"Cricket must not stop in Pakistan," Inzamam told Reuters in Karachi.

"In the last two years, Pakistan has already lost a lot of international cricket at home. The South Africans don't want to play at Karachi or Peshawar, but the tour must go on with matches at other venues."

South Africa had initially been scheduled to play three one-day internationals and three Tests, at Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi, between September 26 and October 27.

Pakistan has been a no-go zone for most cricketing nations since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

In May 2002, a suicide bomb outside a Karachi hotel where the New Zealand team was staying prompted a cancellation of that tour.

India called off a tour in April because of tensions over Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.