HARARE: Zimbabwe wants new and friendly relations with Western countries who have been critical of it in the past, President Robert Mugabe said yesterday.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, also reiterated a call for sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted.

"Our country remains in a positive stance to enter into fresh, friendly and cooperative relations with all those countries that have been hostile to us in the past," he said at the opening of parliament.