AFP Photo: Members of Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party gather outside the venue of a pre-election rally by… HARARE, June 23, 2008 (AFP) - Zimbabwe’s information minister Monday accused the United States in state media of “putting millions of dollars to fuel violence,” adding that US ambassador James McGee to Harare had “failed to fulfil his duties”.

“America is putting millions of dollars to fuel violence and part of this money will be to provide transport costs and paramilitary training for millions of Zimbabweans outside the country when the British stooge, Tsvangirai, loses the presidential run-off as he surely will,” Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said in the state-run Herald newspaper.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the country’s presidential race on Sunday, saying violence had made a fair election impossible.

The country’s ruling party has said his withdrawal announcement may be a ruse.

The government mouthpiece quoted the minister as responding to McGee’s harsh criticism of President Robert Mugabe’s regime.

“McGee’s statements are misplaced, undiplomatic and are meant to fuel despondency by someone who is supposed to be a diplomat but has failed in his purpose to build bridges and good relations between the two countries,” he said.

Mugabe had last month warned the envoy that he risked expulsion if he continued to meddle in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs, the newspaper recalled.

“The prospects for a free and fair election that might bring change to Zimbabwe is extremely limited,” the ambassador told an audience recently in the South African capital of Pretoria.

He said that Zimbabwe, a former potential regional breadbasket with an economy that is now in freefall, was “sinking into a seemingly bottomless abyss.”

The minister also said in the report that the ambassador must “stop his clandestine and CIA activities through the NGOs.”

Courtesy of:http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080623/world/zimbabwe_vote_us