Media urges Zimbabwe to cut ties with Australia

HARARE, Aug 29 (Reuters) Zimbabwe's leading state-run newspaper accused Australia today of trying to oust President Robert Mugabe and urged the Zimbabwean government to expel Australian diplomats.

Australia, the United States and Britain have been outspoken critics of Mugabe, imposing sanctions against his government and calling for free and fair elections.

The Herald accused Australia of plotting to oust Mugabe as part of a ''British racist plot'' to install the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

''Diplomatic relations with Australia cannot be salvaged anymore under the present Australian regime of John Howard. The only remaining option for Zimbabwe is to shut down our mission in Sydney and order the Australian embassy in Harare to pack up and go,'' said the newspaper.

''We have nothing to lose by closing our mission in Sydney and kicking out the reactionaries they post here at three-year intervals.'' Mugabe, 83, has ruled Zimbabwe since winning power in 1980, after decades of British colonial rule.

Critics have accused the nationalist leader in recent years of pushing Zimbabwe into an economic collapse by pursuing policies such as seizing white-owned farms for landless blacks.

Mugabe denies allegations of widespread human rights abuses and accuses Western powers of working with the MDC to oust him.

Sanctions appeared to have done little to weaken Mugabe, who is taking measures to tighten his grip on power ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections next year.

In March, Mugabe said Western powers who criticised his clampdown on the opposition could ''go hang'' and threatened to kick out Western diplomats critical of his rule.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged African nations, especially South Africa, yesterday to stand up to Mugabe and encourage him to hold free and fair elections.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating between the Harare government and the MDC, and other African leaders have been muted in their criticism of Mugabe.

Tsvangirai, whose campaigning against Mugabe has seen him and other opposition members beaten by Zimbabwean police, is due to hold talks with Howard this week.

In a comment in the Herald, Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, said Tsvangirai had ''decided to sacrifice ongoing negotiations under the aegis of President Mbeki by patronising white Australia''.

REUTERS PY KP1702