FACTBOX-Big issues for South Africa

(Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress will choose a new leader during a December 16-20 congress, amid some of the worst factional feuding in its history.

Here are some details of South Africa's main issues.

* CRIME:

-- South Africa has some of the highest rates of murder and rape in the world. Opposition groups and the media have accused the government of failing to curb crime.

-- The government has said it will boost spending and improve the criminal justice system to combat violent crime to try to make the streets safe before the country hosts the 2010 soccer World Cup.

* POVERTY:

-- The government wants to lift growth to an average of more than 6 percent by 2010 to try to cut widespread poverty and high unemployment.

-- The South African Institute for Race Relations, a thinktank, recently came under criticism by the government for saying the number of South Africans living on less than $1 per day climbed to 3.6 million from 1.9 million between 1996 and 2001. However, the research showed that after 2002 this number declined because social grants increased by 300 percent between 2001 and 2006.

* CORRUPTION: