Celebrating his 83rd birthday today, President Robert Mugabe accused his main opposition rival of trying to oust him with British help, but vowed these efforts would fail.
Mr Mugabe has ruled the southern African country since independence from Britain in 1980 and critics, who accuse the president of human rights violations, say his nationalist policies have plunged the economy into deep crisis.
Addressing thousands of supporters from his ruling ZANU-PF party at a party to mark his birthday, Mr Mugabe said his government was working hard to turn around the economy.
He said, however, his plans were being sabotaged by those trying to overthrow him, including Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
"Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC, those puppets of the British, are trying to organise to remove us from power to fulfil an agenda given to them by the British," he said.
"But their efforts will come to nought because we have the support of the people of the people and, even if he denounces us from the top of a mountain or appeals for foreign intervention from there, we are not going to fall," he said at the party in a stadium in the quiet central Zimbabwe city of Gweru.
While ZANU-PF laid on a feast for his birthday, the IMF expressed deep concern over Zimbabwe's deteriorating social and economic conditions.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change has said the party is "in bad taste" given the state of the economy. Doctors, nurses and teachers have staged wildcat strikes demanding higher wages to cushion against rampant inflation.
The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it would maintain its suspension of financial and technical assistance to Zimbabwe. Harare had failed to clear its debt arrears and address the worsening economic and social crisis, the IMF said.
Mugabe's government banned political rallies and protests in volatile townships and districts in the capital Harare on Wednesday, a move the opposition compared to a "state of emergency".
Yesterday, the police cancelled an opposition meeting in the country's second largest city of Bulawayo. The three-month ban followed weekend clashes between riot squads and opposition supporters when the police fired teargas and water cannons to stop a major rally.
Mr Mugabe co-led Zimbabwe's 1970s fight to end minority white rule and rejects charges he has run down the economy. He says Britain has orchestrated a Western sabotage campaign to punish him for the seizure of white-owned farms for blacks.
The leader will officially end his term in March 2008, but ZANU-PF is considering a change to electoral laws which would give him two more years in power.