A major summit involving six regional heads of state will be held in Harare next month to solve the land crisis in Zimbabwe, the Mozambican presidential spokesman, Mr Estefane Moholovi, said yesterday.
A decision to hold the summit was taken during a meeting yesterday in the Mozambican port of Beira between Mr Bakili Muluzi president of Malawi, Mr Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique and Mr Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, said Mr Moholovi.
"The meeting will be held by mid-September, but no date was fixed for it," he said.
The conference will be attended by the heads of state of Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Angola, he added.
Zimbabwe's ruling party, the opposition, white farmers and other interested groups will be invited to attend.
Mr Moholovi said the decision was taken after Mr Chissano and Mr Muluzi "heard President Mugabe's long explanation of the reform programme in his country and they pledged to give their contributions towards the resolution of the crisis."
The Beira summit was a follow-up to a decision by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at a meeting in Blantyre early this month.
The summit met to take steps to address the problem, including setting up a task team.
Mr Moholovi said Mozambique President Mr Chissano and Malawi President Mr Muluzi decided at an African investment meeting held in Kampala a week ago that they needed to meet Mr Mugabe to discuss the land crisis before the task team meets.
The South African President Thabo Mbeki was quoted in a World Council of Churches (WCC) press release telling visiting the WCC general secretary, Mr Konrad Raiser, last week that Mr Mugabe had agreed to a visit to the country by six regional heads of state.
"We agreed that the group needs to intervene. It will talk with commercial farmers, war veterans, landless people and all stakeholders in the land question in Zimbabwe," Mr Mbeki was quoted as saying.
President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria is holding separate talks on September 6th and 7th to mediate between Zimbabwe and Britain under the aegis of the Commonwealth in Abuja.
The Abuja meeting will be attended by foreign ministers from Australia, Britain, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe itself.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean government denied yesterday that President Mugabe has secret plans to force all white farmers off their farms before next year's presidential elections. The Sunday Telegraph had reported that it had obtained "a secret document" showing that Mr Mugabe's party had ordered bands of war veterans to harass white farmers until they could take no more.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told Zimbabwe state media yesterday the report was "stupid, false and malicious". "It's idiotic, very stupid because not only is it based on a false document but is also written with a malicious intent," he said.