By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is still studying last week's agreement to end his controversial land seizure drive, the country's foreign minister said in an interview published on Sunday.
Mugabe has made no public comment on the pact, reached in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday. He returned home early on Sunday after a week's "working holiday" in Libya, Zimbabwe state radio reported.
In an interview with the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper, Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said Zimbabwe would announce its next move once Mugabe had finished studying the document.
But he said the agreement to halt farm invasions in exchange for funds to finance a fair and just land reform programme would not stop or delay land redistribution to the black majority.
Mudenge, who led Zimbabwe's team to the Commonwealth ministerial meeting in Nigeria at which the agreement was reached, said on Friday the government would move swiftly to evict illegal land invaders.
But political analysts believe that without Mugabe's public seal of approval, the deal aimed at ending an 18-month land crisis in the southern African country will not hold.
Government officials said Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido, who flew into Harare on Friday night, was expected to brief Mugabe on the Abuja agreement on Sunday.
Political analysts said there was understandable anxiety over the personal view of the increasingly unpredictable 77-year-old Zimbabwean leader, who has walked away from previous deals.
Militants backing Mugabe's land seizures invaded a white-owned farm and burned workers' homes on Saturday as Zimbabwe waited for the president to endorse the deal.
The mainly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said it had received no other reports of major incidents on the farms by mid-morning on Sunday.
In the interview, Mudenge called on Zimbabwe's embattled white farmers to cooperate with the government in implementing the Abuja agreement.
"He said the government would announce the way forward once the President (Mugabe) has studied the report from Abuja," the Sunday Mail said.
Under the headline "Accord to speed up land reform", the newspaper quoted Mudenge and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made as saying the implementation of the Abuja agreement would also depend on the attitude of white farmers.
"I hope they will withdraw contests so that the government can proceed with the exercise without any disturbances," Mudenge said.
Under the accord, Zimbabwe's former colonial power Britain agreed to co-finance compensation for farmers whose land would be handed to blacks.
The CFU and Zimbabwe's main opposition party have welcomed the Abuja agreement, but said it would only be of importance if Mugabe implements it.
On Monday, regional leaders led by South African President Thabo Mbeki, will convene in Harare for a two-day summit with Mugabe on the land issue.
Mbeki has urged Zimbabwe to uphold the rule of law and has called on the international community to honour pledges for financial assistance for the land reform programme.
Zimbabwe plunged into a serious political and economic crisis when Mugabe allowed his supporters, led by self-styled independence war veterans, to begin invading hundreds of white-owned farms in support of his land seizure drive.
Critics say Mugabe has chosen a radical land reform drive as part of a campaign to retain power in the face of a serious political challenge from the MDC. - Reuters