By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe wasquoted on Sunday as saying he would be willing to hand power toa 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 notime-frame and again vowed to stop the opposition from endinghis rule, which foreign secretary David Miliband described assadism.
Mugabe, 84, is fighting for re-election in a June 27run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement forDemocratic Change (MDC). The opposition leader won the firstround in March but not with enough votes to take thepresidency.
The veteran Zimbabwean leader, who has ruled Zimbabwe sinceindependence from Britain in 1980, has threatened to go to warto stop a Tsvangirai victory.
The Mail said Mugabe told a rally on Saturday that his"leadership was prepared to relinquish power to those (ZANU-PFofficials) that uphold the country's (independence) legacy".
"This country cannot be sold at the stroke of a pen," headded, repeating a vow not to let the MDC, whom he has brandedas British puppets, rule the country.
The Mail said Mugabe urged supporters to concentrate ondefending his government's land nationalisation and blackeconomic empowerment policies, and not on complaints by what hecalled "sellouts" that ZANU-PF has been in power for too long.
Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, once one of Africa's mostprosperous, has collapsed, and shortages of bread, milk andmeat are common. Inflation is 165,000 percent and unemployment80 percent.
"We are the custodians of Zimbabwe's legacy. We will passthis on to those we know are fully aware of the party'sideology, those who value the country's legacy," the newspaperquoted Mugabe as saying.
"I WILL NOT GROW OLD"
Mugabe has previously said he did not want to name an heirover fears he or she would become a target of other officialsnursing ambitions to succeed him as ZANU-PF leader.
The president gave no timetable for his possible retirementand added: "But as long as the British still want to come here,I will not grow old; until we know we no longer have selloutsamong us."
Mugabe this week threatened that he and his independencewar veterans will take up arms again to stop the MDC takingpower.
The MDC and rights groups say ZANU-PF have launched abrutal campaign of violence which has killed at least 66 MDCactivists, wounded hundreds others and displaced tens ofthousands since the March 29 election.
Britain's Miliband said South Africa had a responsibilityto do more to bring pressure on its neighbour, and condemnedthe violence that has marred the run-up to the election.
"The first thing is to be clear about the sadism, and I usethat word advisedly, that's going on ... in Zimbabwe," he toldBBC television.
"People being killed, people being tortured, people beingbeaten. Election observers being stripped out, electionofficials being stripped out."
The African Union expressed concern over reported violenceand said it planned to send "a sizable" team of observers tomonitor the run-off poll.
Tsvangirai says he is confident of victory despite theintimidation campaign in which he has been detained severaltimes this month.
(Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa,editing by Gordon Bell)