Mugabe blasts EU, US

NEW YORK - The United States and the European Union should remove their "unilateral and illegal sanctions", President Robert Mugabe, who was addressing the United Nations summit in New York, said.

Mugabe accused the US and the EU of trying to achieve "regime change" through sanctions.

"These evil sanctions violate the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter and should be condemned by the international community," the 90-year-old Mugabe told world leaders at the UN general assembly.

He called for "immediate and unconditional removal" of sanctions that the US and the EU imposed upon Zimbabwean State firms as well as the travel restrictions they imposed upon Mugabe and some of his associates following the elections in 2000.