(Adds Cosatu comment on trial in para 8, background)
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The corruption trial of Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling ANC, was unlikely to start earlier than the scheduled August date, his lawyer Michael Hulley said on Thursday.
The National Prosecuting Authority said this week it was prepared to proceed with the case early if Zuma wished.
"I don't think that there is any likelihood that it will be sooner than (August)," Hulley told 702 radio in an interview.
Zuma, who was elected president of the African National Congress last month, beating President Thabo Mbeki, has been charged with corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering.
Zuma has not commented on the new charges, but has always said he was innocent and that the accusations were part of a political campaign against him.
The trial is set to start on Aug. 4 and could overlap with national elections in 2009, adding to political uncertainty in Africa's biggest economy.
Zuma's supporters say the charges are meant to smear his name, coming barely two weeks after his victory to take the helm of the ANC, and to scupper his chances of succeeding Mbeki as state president.
An official from South Africa's powerful trade union federation COSATU, key Zuma backers, warned that blood may "be spilt" if*the trial proceeded, the Sowetan newspaper reported.
"People are now angry. This time there will be blood spilt in the courtroom. People are ready to put themselves in the frontline. We (COSATU) will not be held responsible for their anger," said Zet Luzipho, COSATU leader in KwaZulu-Natal -- Zuma's home region and where the trial will take place.
The indictment comes more than a year after an earlier corruption case collapsed on procedural grounds, although the NPA continued to probe allegations he accepted bribes in connection with an arms deal involving a French company.
The charges include new allegations linked to dealings with his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who is serving a 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption.
Mbeki fired Zuma as national deputy president in 2005, after Shaik's conviction, sparking some of the worst infighting in the ANC's history. (Reporting by Gordon Bell)
