Mugabe: I will defeat white enemies

President Mugabe: Government not to blame

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe says he will retire when, as he put it, his old white opponents had been "thoroughly beaten".

Once we have the land, and are producing all that can be produced, we are home and dry

Robert Mugabe

Mr Mugabe accused the country's white minority of resisting his efforts to build a non-racial society by refusing to share the country's wealth, particularly land.

He said that the people needed economic victory as well as the political victory they had achieved, and that was why the government must take the land.

His comments, in an interview marking his 77th birthday, came as Britain called for a Commonwealth fact-finding mission to investigate the situation in Zimbabwe.

Growing concern

Asked whether he wished to retire after two decades in power, Mr Mugabe replied: "I would like to do that, sure. As long as I am assured that those we fought yesterday are thoroughly beaten and that the carpet they now stand on, the economic carpet, has been removed from their feet and it has become our carpet."

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence. Political violence and lawlessness have scared off donors and foreign investors.

But Mr Mugabe said his government was not to blame for the country's severe economic crisis - he blamed low commodity prices, a squeeze on foreign aid, and what he called sabotage by white industrialists.

He said: "Once we have the land, and are producing all that can be produced, we are home and dry."

A free media and independent judiciary are fundamental democratic principles

Robin Cook, British Foreign Secretary

UK Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, said he had watched with growing concern as the Zimbabwean government put pressure on judges and journalists.

After discussing the situation with Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, the two men agreed that if a fact-finding team is allowed into Zimbabwe, it should report back to a Commonwealth ministerial meeting in London on 19 - 20 March.

Winter: Expulsion prompted diplomatic concern

In recent weeks, Mr Mugabe, who faces re-election campaign by April 2002 at the latest, has made it clear that he will not tolerate opposition from members of the judiciary, the local media or foreign correspondents.

BBC correspondent Joseph Winter and his family flew to South Africa on Monday after he was ordered out of the country at the weekend.

Mr Winter, a BBC correspondent in Harare for four years, and Mercedes Sayagues, correspondent for the South African Mail & Guardian newspaper, were ordered to leave on Saturday.

A United Nations human rights investigator, Param Cumaraswamy, has warned that the rule of law looks in extreme danger in Zimbabwe.

The Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay was forced to take early retirement under pressure from supporters of Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party.