Analysts say although Mugabe used an annual conference of his ZANU-PF party at the weekend to squeeze an endorsement of his leadership, there are signs to suggest the 79-year-old Zimbabwean leader is working towards early retirement.

Analysts say Zimbabwe?s rift with the Commonwealth helped Mugabe ? who turns 80 in February and has been in power for the last 23 years ? divert attention from the question of who should succeed him.

Barred from a weekend Commonwealth leaders? summit in Nigeria, Mugabe pulled out of the 54-member group when it extended Zimbabwe?s 18-month-old suspension, first imposed over alleged vote-rigging in his re-election last year.

?I don?t think Mugabe manoeuvred the subject (of succession) out of the way because he doesn?t want it to be discussed but because that was not the forum,? said Professor Heneri Dzinotyiwei of the University of Zimbabwe.

General feeling that Mugabe should quit

?If anything I think what we got there was a confirmation that he wants to handle the issue very carefully in a manner that does not destabilise his party,? he told Reuters.

The party is due to elect a new leadership at a congress next December. Mugabe?s presidential term ends in 2008.

Zimbabwe is struggling with a deepening political and economic crisis that many blame on government mismanagement, particularly Mugabe?s handling of a land-reform programme that gave white-owned farms to landless blacks.

ZANU-PF issued a statement ahead of the party conference quashing intense media speculation that Mugabe would use the convention to give pointers on his future, including his preferred successor.

Political analysts say although there has been a general feeling in ZANU-PF over the last year that Mugabe should leave, there is no agreement on who should take over his post, a fact which Mugabe?s critics say he has exploited.

In his closing speech to the conference, Mugabe said he was aware that some party members had been holding secret meetings on the succession issue, but he made clear he had no plans to step down in the foreseeable future.

He said he still had a mandate to fulfil but that if he felt the «need to rest», he would tell the party that he wanted early retirement.

Analysts say Mugabe seems preoccupied with finding the best possible ?honourable exit? because he wants to walk out with dignity rather than be kicked out of a party he has led since the 1970s.

Dzinotyiwei said the way Mugabe has been strengthening ZANU-PF structures in the last six weeks suggests he was conditioning it for elections.

?Despite his denials, I think Mugabe is still looking at the possibility of stepping aside early, maybe next year, maybe in 2005 but only when he is confident that ZANU-PF and a new leader can beat the opposition,? Dzinotyiwei said. Mugabe has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. Early this year he encouraged ZANU-PF to begin debating who should succeed him, sparking speculation he would quit early.

But in September Mugabe disbanded the committee spearheading the debate, saying it was causing party divisions. Political analysts say he probably dissolved it to take tighter hold of the debate after the death of one of his two deputy presidents.

A senior southern African diplomat also said Mugabe had gone out to absorb young leaders mainly from the business sector to prepare for possible early presidential and parliamentary polls.

?There is leadership renewal going on which appears to be a pointer that the old guard is preparing to hand over power to a new generation, and the president is also preparing to hand over to another man,? he said.

<B>?propaganda?

Zimbabwe opposition MP exiled in Britain quits</B>

A Zimbabwean opposition legislator who fled to Britain early this year saying he feared for his life has quit parliament, opposition and parliamentary officials said on yesterday.

Officials confirmed Tafadzwa Musekiwa had written a resignation letter to Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa, a day after President Robert Mugabe's government gave notice that it wanted Musekiwa to be expelled from parliament.

Musekiwa of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) went into exile in Britain in early 2003, saying he had information some government agents wanted to kill him.

Government ministers denied the charge, saying it was part of a propaganda campaign against Mugabe?s ruling ZANU-PF party.

They said Musekiwa, a member of parliament for Zengeza constituency on the outskirts of Harare, was a ?delinquent? running away from a decent job at home to do menial jobs in London.

Cris Chinaka