Mugabe threatens U.S. ambassador as campaign begins

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Sunday accused the United States of political interference and threatened to expel its ambassador, as his party began its campaign for next month's election run-off.

Mugabe also said the State Department's top diplomat for Africa had behaved like a prostitute by suggesting that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won the March 29 elections.

The 84-year-old's attacks on U.S. ambassador James McGee and Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer signalled the start of his campaign for the June 27 run-off against Tsvangirai, who won the first round but fell short of an absolute majority.

"He (McGee) says he fought in Vietnam, but fighting in Vietnam does not give him the right to interfere in our domestic affairs. I am just waiting to see if he makes one more step wrong. He will get out," Mugabe said at a campaign rally.

"As tall as he is, if he continues to do that I will kick him out of the country."

Of Frazer, he said: "You saw this little American girl trotting around like a prostitute celebrating that the MDC had won. A disgraceful act."

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, routinely accuses the United States and Britain of backing the MDC to punish him for seizing thousands of white-owned farms since 2000.

He told supporters in Harare that the Western allies wanted to control Zimbabwe's resources.