Mugabe asks interviewer: Do you want me to punch you to the floor?

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has challenged a TV interviewer when quizzed about any retirement plans, asking him: "Do you want me to punch you to the floor to realise I am still there?"

The 92-year-old, known for his pugnacious comments, was responding to an interviewer from state TV after a question about who would succeed him.

"Why 'successor' when I am still there?" he said in the interview. "Why do you want a successor?"

Mr Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since the country was formed in 1980 from the ashes of white-ruled Rhodesia, said he has no plans to hand over power and ruled out grooming his politically ambitious wife Grace as his chosen successor.