Finally! A world official the left can identify with!

ROME (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Monday railed against U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling them "unholy men" and "international terrorists" bent on world domination.

Mugabe departed from his text at a ceremony for the 60th anniversary of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to accuse Bush and Blair of illegally invading Iraq and looking to unseat governments elsewhere.

"Must we allow these men, the two unholy men of our millennium, who in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini formed (an) unholy alliance ... to attack an innocent country?" he said, occasionally gesticulating for emphasis.

"The voice of Mr. Bush and the voice of Mr. Blair can't decide who shall rule in Zimbabwe, who shall rule in Africa, who shall rule in Asia, who shall rule in Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall rule in Iraq," he said.

"Is this the world we desire? The world of giants and international terrorists who use their state muscle in order to intimidate us? We become the midgets," he said.

Some of the delegates applauded his fiery anti-Western speech several times.

Zimbabwe is grappling with its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, and aid groups have estimated 5 million of its 12 million people may need food aid this year. Mugabe's critics say his government policies have exacerbated the hunger.

Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's economic crisis on sanctions it says Britain has organised in retaliation for Harare's land reform programme, which gave white-owned farms to landless blacks.

In his speech, Mugabe defended the land redistribution saying it was needed to redress the "gross imbalances" of British colonialism.

"AGENT OF IMPERIALSIM"

The European Union slapped a travel ban on Mugabe after accusations of vote rigging in parliamentary polls in 2000 and in Mugabe's re-election two years later. However, he is allowed to travel to EU countries to attend U.N.-sponsored events.

U.S. officials said last month Washington was preparing to impose travel sanctions on Mugabe, members of his government, and their extended families.

The U.S. ambassador to FAO strongly criticised the organisation for inviting Mugabe to its anniversary event, saying Mugabe's policies were helping to starve his own people.

"I believe I can speak for the U.S. government when it comes to Mugabe. They feel he has abused his country, he has abused his people," ambassador Tony Hall told Reuters at the weekend.

Mugabe attacked Hall as an "agent of imperialism" and then thanked FAO's secretary-general, Jacques Diouf, for inviting him despite the U.S. protest.

While all of the other heads of state or government who addressed the assembly from a lectern did so standing alone, Mugabe was flanked by two body guards who stood inches away as he accused Bush and Blair of creating "an inferno" in Iraq.

"Where are their democratic tenets? Where is their morality? Where is their compliance with the salient principles of good government?" Mugabe said.

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