South Africa will repatriate Libyan funds and assets under an agreement with Tripoli, it was announced on Friday.

The agreement was reached at a meeting on Tuesday last week between South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and a Libyan government delegation led by the Minister in the Office of the Libyan Prime Minister, Usama al Abid, according to the South African Government Communication and Information System.

Gordhan has agreed with the Libyan government that the repatriation from South Africa of Libyan funds and assets will be handled in terms of UN protocols, the South African Treasury said in a statement.

The news confirms earlier speculation that the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may have hidden assets in South Africa.

To coordinate the repatriation of assets to Libya, the Libyan government established a single body in 2012, which cooperates with a UN committee formed in terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1970 (2011) and the Panel of Experts which coordinates the orderly and transparent repatriation to Libya of assets frozen in various countries.

In particular, the Panel has directed its efforts towards identifying and monitoring the hidden assets of the Libya Investment Authority (LIA), the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAIP) and the Libya Africa Investment Company (LAIC) as well as the assets of individuals listed under the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.

The amount of Libyan funds and assets to be repatriated remains unknown.

It is speculated that Libyan state assets amounted to more than one billion U.S. dollars in cash, gold and diamonds held by four banks and two security companies in South Africa.

Gaddafi was believed to have stashed billions of dollars in assets around the world.