Zimbabwe's white farmers' union said yesterday that more than 200 white-owned farms would be offered for immediate sale to President Robert Mugabe's government for black resettlement.
The offer came on the last day for commercial farmers to object to Mr Mugabe's controversial seizure of 804 white-owned farms for redistribution to landless peasants.
"Farmers are not just objecting. They are also putting something on the table," said a spokesman for the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which discussed the land issue at a special council meeting in Harare.
"The union is meeting to finalise the offer of over 200 farms to the government for immediate acquisition and resettlement," the spokesman added.
Mr Mugabe promised on Sunday to press ahead with land seizures and said war veterans who have been occupying hundreds of white-owned farms should stay until alternative land was found for them.
"I can't send police and soldiers to fight the war veterans because that would be killing my own kith and kin," state media quoted Mr Mugabe as saying in a speech in Bulawayo.
The government last month published a list of the 804 farms it wanted to acquire forcibly under its land reform programme. Landowners had until Sunday to file any objections, but the deadline was extended to yesterday because Sunday was not an official working day.
Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party narrowly defeated a strong challenge from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the June 24th-25th poll after an election campaign marred by violence linked to the invasions of hundreds of white-owned farms by liberation war veterans. Around 31 people, mostly opposition supporters, died in the farm invasions and political violence.
Together, the 804 farms comprise about 10 per cent of the estimated 12 million hectares of prime farm land owned by members of the 1 per cent white minority.