HARARE, Dec 19 (AFP) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe admitted Thursday that his country was facing serious difficulties related to the famine that has hit the country, but blamed it solely on drought.
He made no mention, however, of a crippling fuel shortages the country is experiencing but as has become his tradition, attacked Britain, the former colonial power, when he presented his state of the nation year-end address.
Although several other countries in southern Africa have been affected by famine, Zimbabwe is the worst hit with alomost eight million people or nearly two thirds of the 11.6 million people affected.
International aid agencies say the problem has been exacerbated by disruptions on white-owned commercial farms by pro-government supporters as part of a chaotic land reform scheme during the last growing season.
Mugabe said he made his address "at a time when our country is experiencing considerable difficulties related to the devastating drought that has ravaged our region ... amidst warnings and fears of yet another drought".
"Household stocks have practically run out in most areas," he told a parliamentary session boycotted by opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawmakers.
He promised that his government would step up imports of food and their movement while appealing to the corporate sector to complement government's efforts.
Motorists continued to queue for kilometres (miles) Thursday in hopes of fuel as the sole oil-procuring parastatal said it has ordered supplies worth 15 million US dollars from IPG of Kuwait, Sasol of South Africa and Sandstone of Mozambique.
Critics have primarily blamed Mugabe for the hunger and economic woes in the country, where inflation last month leapt up by 30 points to hit a record 175.5 percent.
Over the last two farming seasons, operations were disrupted during land invasions by groups of war veterans and pro-government supporters.
The land reforms were widely condemned internationally especially because of the violence associated with them.
"We have been criticised for doing the right thing. Our nation has paid dearly for embarking upon the urgent and unavoidable land reforms," Mugabe said.
Britain has led an international anti-Zimbabwe campaign following disagreements over the land reforms here.
Mugabe claimed that some western European countries have admitted that Britain's campaign was unjustified and spiteful.
"Britain's relentless diplomatic campaign of vilifying and isolating our country has hit a frenzy only matched by its futility," he said.
"There is a growing recognition even within the European Union that this Blair-led anti-Zimbabwe drive is as unjustified as it is spiteful."
Mugabe dismissed what he called "malicious claims" over his country's controversial involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, alongside troops from Angola and Namibia, which sided with the government.
"What the international community could not achieve with so much tragedy in the 1960s has been accomplished by three small southern African nations with meagre resources," he boasted.
The domestic parties to the DRC war signed a peace and power-sharing pact last week.
Mugabe also touched on the HIV/AIDS pandemic which is killing an average 3,000 people per week in Zimbabwe, saying his government has secured supplies of the anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine, to be administered free of charge to patients to prevent mother-to child transmission of the virus.
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