Harare • Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has accused Britain of refusing dialogue with its former colony, and said he expects ties to improve after Prime Minister Tony Blair steps down later in 2007, state media said yesterday.

They said that Mugabe, who had been at odds with Britain since he ordered the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, had asked former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa to try to broker talks with Britain in a bid to resolve their differences.

But in an interview with Harare’s official Herald newspaper yesterday, Mugabe said he had asked Mkapa to step down because the task was “insurmountable”.

“The Blair government is a queer government, and Blair behaves like a headmaster, old fashioned, who dictates that things must be done his way: ‘Do it or you ... remain punished and an outcast,’” the newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying.

“But we are hoping that with the departure of Blair, there will be a better situation there and they can be talked to,” he added.

The 83-year-old Mugabe, who had ruled Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, charges that Britain has been trying to oust him over the last few years over his controversial seizures of white-owned farms for blacks.

The United Kingdom dismisses this, saying Zimbabwe’s long-running political and economic crisis is a result of rights abuses, vote-rigging and skewed policies, which have nothing to do with London.

Blair, who plans to resign later this year after a decade in power, refuses to name a date for stepping down but many politicians expect him to hand over to finance minister Gordon Brown in July.