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Mugabe refuses to give Gono up

Harare - Zimbabwe's central bank Governor Gideon Gono will remain in his position, President Robert Mugabe said on Monday, defying pressure from the opposition and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for him to be removed.

"Within the country, in the inclusive (power-sharing) government, there are those who don't want him, but I say he will not go," Mugabe said on state television, in comments made at the funeral of Gono's brother.

"Those in Britain and elsewhere are not happy that he is where he is, still (at) the top of the Reserve Bank."

Western donors, looking for evidence of reform in Zimbabwe, see the removal of Gono, whose term has spanned the collapse of the once prosperous country, as key to resuming aid flows.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which accuses Gono of policies that contributed to Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, is also pushing for Gono to be ousted, saying his reappointment for another five-year term last November violated a pact signed with Mugabe.

On Wednesday, Tsvangirai said the appointment of the central bank governor and the attorney-general were the only issues that stood in the way of the full implementation of a power-sharing agreement reached last September.

The MDC has since asked regional bloc Southern African Development Community (SADC), which brokered the deal, to resolve the dispute.

Tsvangirai and Mugabe formed a unity government in February after months of wrangling, a move that was seen as the best hope to rescue an economy battered by hyperinflation and years of contraction.

- Reuters

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