Lusaka - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa sacked Vice President Nevers Mumba on Monday for sparking a row with neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo over claims Congolese businessmen were funding Zambia's opposition.
The accusations made by Mumba to party loyalists living near the Congolese border soured relations between the two countries already strained by years of war in Congo and an influx of refugees, including armed fighters, into Zambia.
"I have with immediate effect removed Dr Nevers Mumba and in his place I appoint Lupando Mwape as vice president of Zambia," Mwanawasa told reporters at state house.
"I am the only one who is supposed to issue statements on intelligence issues relating to other countries," he said.
Returning on Sunday from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he met Congolese President Joseph Kabila, Mwanawasa said he was embarrassed by Mumba's accusations against Congo.
Mumba told ruling partly loyalists last week in the town of Ndola, at the heart of Zambia's economically vital Copperbelt near the Congo border, that prominent Congolese businessmen were funding Zambian opposition parties to "destabilise" the country.
The accusations sparked a diplomatic row when Congo's ambassador to Zambia, Jean Marie Kazadi, publicly invited Zambian authorities to send a team to Congo to verify their claims.
Kazadi said prominent Congolese businessmen were also accused of providing guns to Zambian opposition parties, although Zambian authorities did not confirm those accusations.
Zambia's economy is largely dependent on copper and cobalt mining in the northern Copperbelt region, which borders Congo.