Mugabe: 'MDC would never rule'

President Robert Mugabe has vowed that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would never rule Zimbabwe.

In a speech at the burial of a former army general, he said: "We shall never, never accept anything that smells of ... the MDC. These pathetic puppets taking over this country? Let's see. That is not going to happen.

"We are prepared to fight for it (Zimbabwe) if we lose it in the same way that our forefathers lost it," he said, referring to British colonial rule.

Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai will go head-to-head in a run-off election on June 27. Tsvangirai won a first ballot in March but without the necessary majority, while Mugabe's ZANU-PF lost control of parliament.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, accused the former colonial power and the US of interfering in politics by sponsoring the MDC.

He said: "We have become the focus of the British and the Americans. The US has provided $70 million to the MDC for regime change ... and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is interfering in our internal affairs."

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.

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