Zimbabwe tells Kofi Annan to postpone planned visit

Harare: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government has told former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan to postpone a planned visit to the country, state media said on Thursday.

Along with former US president Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela's wife Grace Machel, Annan planned to visit Zimbabwe on Friday to assess the humanitarian situation, as part of a group of prominent figures and former statesmen called The Elders.

An unnamed senior government source told the state-run Herald newspaper that the group had been advised to put off the visit to a later date.