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Harare: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was quoted on Sunday as saying he would be willing to hand power to a ruling party ally when he was sure the country was safe from "sellouts" and from British interference.
But the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper said he gave no time-frame and again vowed to stop the opposition from ending his rule, which Britain's foreign secretary David Miliband described as sadism.
Mugabe, 84, is fighting for re-election in a June 27 run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The opposition leader won the first round in March but not with enough votes to take the presidency.
Mugabe has threatened to go to war to stop a Tsvangirai victory.
The Mail said Mugabe told a rally on Saturday that his "leadership was prepared to relinquish power to those (ZANU-PF officials) that uphold the country's (independence) legacy".
"This country cannot be sold at the stroke of a pen," he added, repeating a vow not to let the MDC, whom he has branded as British puppets, rule the country.
Mugabe has previously said he did not want to name an heir over fears he or she would become a target of other officials nursing ambitions to succeed him as ZANU-PF leader.
The president gave no timetable for his possible retirement and added: "But as long as the British still want to come here, I will not grow old; until we know we no longer have sellouts among us."
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