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  MUGABE REASSURES COOK ON ZIMBABWE ELECTIONS

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has emerged from talks with President Robert
Mugabe following weeks of rising tension between Britain and Zimbabwe.
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has emerged from talks with President Robert
Mugabe following weeks of rising tension between Britain and Zimbabwe.
Mr Cook said Mr Mugabe had told him that elections in Zimbabwe, due in May,
would go ahead as planned in accordance with the African state's
constitution.

Meanwhile, Mr Cook pledged that Britain would help fund land reform - the
source of recent confrontation between white farmers and black residents.

The warmer tone came after a 45-minute meeting between the Foreign
Secretary and Mr Mugabe on the fringes of the EU-Africa summit in Cairo.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Robin Cook said they had an honest and
open discussion on which both parties laid their concerns on the table.

"We are very happy that there has at last been some constructive dialogue
with Zimbabwe - that is what we have always wanted."

The Foreign Office said the pair talked about land reform and the weekend's
peaceful demonstrations against Mr Mugabe's rule, which were violently
broken up by his supporters.

"One point the Foreign Secretary corrected was the misapprehension that we
were not willing to help fund a land reform programme," said the spokesman.

Britain would be prepared to help provided land reform was a "transparent,
cost-effective programme" that helped the rural poor, he added.

Zimbabwe was also invited and agreed to send a delegation to London to
discuss its differences with Britain at a date to be fixed.









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