Rice To Mugabe: It's Time To Leave

December 5, 2008 6:34 p.m. EST

Copenhagen, Denmark (AHN) - U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice said Friday that Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe should resign as the African country reels from political turmoil, hyperinflation and a cholera epidemic.

"It is well past time for Robert Mugabe to leave," Rice said in Copenhagen, according to Al Jazeera. She said the presidential elections in which Mugabe claimed victory over rival Morgan Tsvangirai was a sham as is the botched power-sharing agreement he offered to the latter.

Her comments were immediately criticized by Harare. "Zimbabwe is a sovereign state and cannot be dictated to by some secretary of state of another country no matter how big," information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told Al Jazeera.

The secretary was in Denmark resuming her European tour after visiting India and Pakistan. She is bidding farewell to top diplomats before the Bush administration leaves in January.