Mugabe firm over white land seizure

ZIMBABWE'S PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe vowed yesterday that he would implement his controversial plans to seize mostly white-owned commercial farms for black peasants, even if donors withdrew vital support.

Mugabe said land redistribution had become an urgent issue in the wake of illegal occupation of some commercial farms by villagers.

He said any more delays would spark anarchy from peasants, who say Mugabe has failed to deliver on a key promise he made during Zimbabwe's independence war in the 1970s, in a struggle many say was fundamentally over land.

Officials deny that the government may have prompted villagers to occupy half a dozen farms in the past week in order to give impetus to Mugabe's land seizure plans.

Mugabe, 74, says blacks have a greater right to the land than white settlers he charges "stole" it.