Zambia's influential former Finance Minister, Ronald Penza, has been shot dead at his home in the capital, Lusaka.

A police spokesman told the BBC he believed the shooting was the work of criminals and that gunmen had earlier robbed a nearby house.

But Mr Penza's nephew, Derek Chitala, said the attack appeared to be a well-planned assassination attempt.

Mr Penza was finance minister until March this year, when he was dismissed by President Chiluba over policy differences.

As minister, he spearheaded the dismantling of the command economy the government inherited from the former president, Kenneth Kaunda, and supervised a privatisation programme.

Correspondents say he was widely believed to have political ambitions and was thought to be planning to run for the presidency in elections scheduled for two-thousand and one.