ARCHBISHOP Desmond Tutu is coming to North Yorkshire.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who helped to vanquish apartheid and shape the Rainbow Nation of South Africa, will visit Yorkshire International Business Convention at the Yorkshire Showground, in Harrogate, on June 10.

A helicopter will ferry him between Harrogate and a "satellite" event in Hull where delegates will have a live two-way link with the Harrogate showground's Yorkshire Events Centre.

The former Archbishop of Cape Town who headed South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is the latest in a host of prestigious speakers at the convention.

They include US President Bill Clinton, former Soviet leader Michail Gorbachev, former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani, shuttle diplomacy specialist Dr Henry Kissinger and, in 1997, the former president of the apartheid republic, FW de Klerk.

Convention chief executive Mike Firth said he was convinced that what Archbishop Tutu would have to say would be compelling.

"After all, if you can tackle the problems of apartheid and world peace and come up with realistic solutions that work, then that puts most problems faced by business leaders into context."

Updated: 10:28 Monday, February 21, 2005