2:20pm UK, Friday December 19, 2008

Robert Mugabe has told his party he will never surrender and is not intimated by calls for him to step down.

Mugabe says he won’t be intimidated

At the Zanu-PF annual conference he told members he would remain in power until his people decide to change him.

“I will never, never, never, never surrender. Zimbabwe is mine, I am a Zimbabwean,” he said.

“Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe never for the British, Britain for the British.”

Mugabe also hit back at Western governments, who have stepped up criticism of his regime since the outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe.

“I won’t be intimidated. Even if I am threatened with beheading, I believe this and nothing will ever move me from it: Zimbabwe belongs to us, not the British.”

Mugabe warned that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai would be waiting “in vain” to see his regime collapse.

“My view is that those who run the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have given the MDC the impression that Zimbabwe is collapsing,” he said.

“If they want to wait they can wait. That day will never come.”

Mr Tsvangirai said the MDC will pull out of power-sharing talks if abductions of party members do not stop.

The deadlock between the two men has left Zimbabwe at a virtual standstill, with the economic crisis leading to food shortages and disease.

More than 1,100 have died from cholera and at least 20,000 are infected, according to the latest UN figures.

The country’s central bank unveiled a new 10 billion Zimbabwe dollar bank note to try to keep up with spiralling inflation.