KEY POINTS:
Foreign Minister Winston Peters arrived home today but slipped through Auckland Airport without speaking to waiting media.
He arrived from Singapore at about 10.25am but did not appear through international arrivals.
A New Zealand First spokesman said a press conference would be held later today.
Mr Peters is
under pressure to salvage his credibility after more damaging revelations on secret donations.
And he may point the finger of blame at a trusted former aide for confidential leaks.
Mr Peters' New Zealand First Party has been shocked to learn that Sir Robert Jones donated $25,000 to the party through a previously unheard-of trust, the Spencer Trust.
Party president George Groombridge, who has been on the party's board for eight years, said yesterday he had never heard of the trust and did not know Sir Robert had been a donor.
The donation was not declared to the Electoral Commission, and Sir Robert is seeking assurances from the party that the donation was spent on the 2005 election, as intended.
It is understood New Zealand First believes damaging leaks about donations have been coming from former parliamentary chief of staff Graham Harding, and that Mr Peters plans to point the finger today.
Mr Harding rejected the allegation yesterday, saying: "It is simply not the case. I didn't know about them until I read about them over my cornflakes."
Mr Harding left Mr Peters' office in March this year.
Mr Peters returns today from Singapore and will be under pressure to provide answers before the visit this weekend from United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
He is to meet Dr Rice when she arrives in Auckland tonight from Perth.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday sought assurances from Mr Peters' office over the latest donations issue.
A spokesman for her said she "received an assurance from Mr Peters that funding has been conducted lawfully".
Helen Clark has also received an assurance from Mr Peters that he did not know until Friday that Owen Glenn paid $100,000 of his legal fees.
This came after the Herald published a private email from Mr Glenn showing that despite Mr Peters' public denials, Mr Glenn believed he had donated to the party.
The Dominion Post this week revealed the Jones donation, and questioned whether a series of donations to New Zealand First from racing and fishing magnates the Vela brothers reached the party.
National leader John Key said that if it was true that Mr Peters had solicited donations and disguised them through trusts "it certainly smacks of hypocrisy".
He again called on Helen Clark to involve herself in getting to the truth of the matter "for the integrity of her Government".
Neither Mr Key nor Helen Clark were in Parliament yesterday and Justice Minister Annette King fielded questions such as this from Act leader Rodney Hide: "How can there be any confidence in New Zealand's democracy, when an overseas billionaire pays off Winston Peters' legal bill to the tune of $100,000 while seeking an honorary consulship, and Bob Jones gives Winston Peters $25,000 that disappears into his brother's trust account; and is not the real corruption the fact that Helen Clark refuses to investigate this money because she needs the vote of New Zealand First?"
Ms King reminded Mr Hide that Act had been late with its donations declaration. And she said National had last December "cleaned out" two trust accounts of anonymous donations before the Electoral Finance Act put limits on them this year.
* They said it
February press conference:
Winston Peters: We don't go and ask anyone for money. That's a fact.
Yesterday on National Radio:
Presenter: And it was Mr Peters who approached you for the [$25,000] money?
Sir Robert Jones: Yes.
