THE GREAT WESTERN PLOT!

Zimbabwe axes forex petrol outlet.

Petrol queues can be hundreds of cars long. Zimbabwe has stopped motorists buying petrol in foreign currencies, a system introduced six months ago. Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono told state media that its abuse had led to high black market prices. Zimbabwe is facing an economic crisis with a chronic shortage of fuel and basic food stuffs.

Meanwhile, a government minister has warned financial institutions against lending to white farmers in case they are farming "illegally". Some 4,000 white farmers have been evicted from their land since a controversial land reform programme began in 2000. Land has been redistributed to some 150,000 black farmers but agricultural production has halved.

Mr Gono said the foreign currency coupon system, where certain garages accepted payment in foreign currency had initially worked well, but it had only ever been intended as a temporary measure, to reduce queues.

Robert Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's problems on a western plot" Some members of the public started to abuse the facility and used it for speculative and parallel market activities, thus militating against its main objective," he told the Sunday Mail newspaper. He said he regretted any inconvenience, but it was being scrapped "for the best interest of the wider economy".

In the same paper, Land Reform Minister Didymus Mutasa accused Mr Gono's Reserve Bank and unspecified financial institutions of getting into contract farming with white farmers without checking their status on the farms with his ministry. He said before any loan can be extended to a white farmer, his ministry needed to be consulted. Mr Mutasa claims new black farmers are being sidelined on the grounds that they do not have collateral support, while white farmers are perceived to have the capacity to repay as they have title deeds.

President Robert Mugabe has always accused western countries led by former colonial power Britain of sabotaging the economy because of opposition to land reform.

BBC NEWS REPORT.