Harare - Zimbabwe's government has said it will co-operate with the United Nations in its land reform programme, as it launched an appeal for relief for the tens of thousands of newly resettled poor blacks.
The expropriation of land from mainly white commercial farmers by President Robert Mugabe's government to give it to landless blacks has been surrounded by violence and bitter controversy.
Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge, cited on Wednesday in state news media, said the government welcomed attempts by the United Nations to help mobilise international support for Zimbabwe's land reform scheme.
Mudenge said the government had replied to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) administrator Mark Malloch Brown's letter on the exercise.
The letter was handed to the UNDP chief representative in Zimbabwe, Victor Angelo in Harare on Tuesday, but the contents were not made public.
According to Ziana news agency, in a letter to Mugabe after visiting Harare in December, Malloch Brown had recommended that government abandons its current land reforms, adhere to the rule of law and compensate white farmers.
State television reported that Mudenge had indicated in the letter to Malloch Brown that Zimbabwe "is prepared to co-operate with the world body on the land resettlement issue."
Mudenge said he had made an appeal through the United Nations for assistance to the newly resettled peasant farmers.
"In my letter I indicated that great need had arisen from the fact that people were resettled quickly on the land and we would need assistance and help of the UN agencies because of the... heavy rains with the risk of malaria and the fact that there are no clinics, no educational facilities and no clean water," Mudenge was quoted as saying by Ziana.
About 71 000 resettled on land previously owned by white farmers under a new reform scheme dubbed the "fast track" excercise.
The UNDP chief, who is UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative on Zimbabwe's land reform troubles, visited Zimbabwe last year during which time he met Mugabe, among others.
He said the UNDP was prepared to provide Zimbabwe with technical assistance in its land reform scheme, but said the government would also have to satisfy donors' concerns about law and order in the country.
The government's latest land scheme came after militant veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war led the forcible invasions of 1 600 white-owned farms since February last year.
Donors have suspended million of dollars promised at a UN-brokered meeting in 1998 to support the land reform programme.
Malloch Brown urged dialogue in the land dispute, but government this week ruled out dialogue with the union representing the white commercial farmers, saying it was irrelevant in the exercise. - Sapa-AFP