Muammar Gaddafi headed for Zimbabwe!

There are speculations that the embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is headed for Zimbabwean or Angolan exile under a South African-brokered deal, Al Jazeera has reported. However, SA International Relations minister Maite Nkoane-Mashabane has scorched reports that Pretoria has scrambled jets to rescue the eccentric leader.

President Robert Mugabe once launched a scathing attack on the Western countries that intervened militarily in Libya, castigating them as "vampires" who sought to kill Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi and control the country's oil.

Mugabe made his comments after a meeting with visiting Chinese Deputy Premier Wang Qishan.

While Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi was not immediately available for comment on the report, the Libyan ruler has supported Mugabe's government and Zanu PF party over the years. Earlier this year, one of his captured sons Saif al-Islam was in Zimbabwe to wrap up commercial deals in tourism and other sectors.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party denounced the Western intervention in Libya, while the other main partner in Harare's national unity government, the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, hewed close to the position advanced by the African Union, urging an end to hostilities.