Robert Mugabe: I have died more times than Jesus Christ

The Zimbabwean president, who has been in power since 1987, said it would be up to the people to decide his successor "when I say I am retiring".

He said he reserved the right to disregard efforts by South African President Jacob Zuma to mediate disputes in the nation's troubled coalition government.

Mr Mugabe also repeated his pledge to hold elections this year, even if it means defying Mr Zuma and other regional leaders who say new polls should be held only after a new democratic constitution is in place.

"This year we must have elections, they must take place with or without a new constitution," he said.

He said he held sufficient powers to announce a 2012 election date. "And I will. If there are those who don't want an election, they are free not to go [to the polls]", he added said.

Mr Zuma is tasked by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to help steer Zimbabwe toward free and fair elections to end the three-year power sharing deal the regional bloc brokered after violent elections in 2008. Mr Mugabe is in the power sharing deal with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a former opposition leader.

On state television, Mr Mugabe described the often-delayed rewriting of the constitution as flawed and manipulated by his opponents. He said he was not afraid of angering the region and facing isolation.

"We will tell SADC what the problem is. SADC cannot tell us to continue with an exercise that is futile," he said.

His party would withdraw from the coalition "if others continue to play dirty tricks that we can't put up with any more. Then we return to the existing constitution," which was adopted after independence in 1980.