Zimbabwe yesterday pledged to remove blacks illegally occupying white-owned farms but said land seizures could only end if Britain honoured its agreement to fund a land resettlement scheme.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Stan Mudenge, told reporters that a Nigerian and Commonwealth brokered accord struck in Abuja on Thursday had paved the way for normalisation of ties with former colonial ruler Britain, strained by the land crisis.
"The agreement we reached is a compromise," Mr Mudenge said. "It is a commitment by Zimbabwe (to end land occupations) and a commitment by Britain and the international community to come to the aid of Zimbabwe in land resettlement," he said.
Zimbabwe's delegation, led by Mr Mudenge, pledged in the accord to halt illegal occupation of white-owned farms by landless blacks calling themselves veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s war.
But Mr Mudenge said the agreement concerned only land the government had not designated for acquisition under its policy of resettling the black majority which is largely landless.
"A process will begin in an energised way so that those on land government does not intend to acquire will be moved," Mr Mudenge said.
Zimbabwe's Agriculture Minister, Mr Joseph Made, has said the government intends to re-settle blacks on 8.3 million hectares of the 12 million held by white farmers. Some 3,500 farms have already been fully or partly occupied by militants.
It was not immediately clear whether the agreement meant that some of the black occupiers would be ejected on government orders.
Mr Mudenge drew a distinction between land acquisition, which he said was the legitimate right of Zimbabwe to pursue on behalf of its majority blacks, and illegal land occupations, which critics accuse the government of encouraging. "Land occupation will never be a policy of Zimbabwe and has never been a policy of Zimbabwe," he said. It was "Britain's refusal" to honour its funding pledge "that led to the present unfortunate state of affairs", Mr Mudenge added.
Under the deal announced by mediator Nigeria after talks in Abuja, Britain agreed to put money into a UN-administered fund to compensate white farmers for land taken for redistribution in an orderly scheme.
Conference sources said the influence of the Nigerian President, Mr Olusegun Obasanjo, who convened the talks was critical in moving Zimbabwe to retreat from its hardline posture over land.
"There is now a promise," Mr Mudenge said. "If enough resources are provided Zimbabwe will pay full and fair compensation to the farmers whose land has been acquired." But Mr Mudenge added that without adequate funding, "Zimbabwe will only compensate for improvements on land".
He dismissed suggestions that Zimbabwe had softened its stand because of the threat of international sanctions, including suspension from the Commonwealth.
Both the US and the European Union are debating sanctions against Harare.
"If those sanctions are intended to compel the government of Zimbabwe to stop land acquisitions, then we have no choice but to continue with that policy," Mr Mudenge said.