In Harare, President Robert Mugabe says he has no intention of inviting Western observers to monitor Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections, scheduled in about three months.
Saturday's edition of the state-run Herald newspaper quotes Mr. Mugabe as saying he will invite only neighbor states to send election observers next March.
The 80-year-old president has been accused of rigging the 2002 ballot that re-elected him, and Western observers also criticized the flawed conduct of the country's last parliamentary election, in 2000.
In his remarks this week to a gathering of his ruling ZANU-PF party, Mr. Mugabe reportedly denounced what he called "imperialist countries" of the developed world as "liars [and] completely dishonest."
Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.