Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said that world safety had worsened judging by the increasing number of bombings and terrorist cases across the globe.

He told reporters this after meeting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at the State House in Harare.

"The world is still not safe today, in fact it is getting worse. For example, travellers are no longer safe because of terrorism while in different places such as America, bombings continue to occur," he was quoted as saying in a report published on Bernama online.

He condemned the unipolar world now existing in world politics, saying it was an unfortunate phenomenon that other countries in the world could not tackle.

"It's a bad thing that is happening but unfortunately we cannot opt for the other side," he said.

Land reform programme

Meanwhile, he described Zimbabwe as a rich nation with great potential for development.

He also spoke out in support of the government's land reform programme that has seen thousands of landless blacks being given land.

"Zimbabwe is now independent and the whites should know that what they had during the colonial period, they cannot have now," he said.

Mahathir was scheduled to deliver a lecture at a workshop on Civil Service Reform and also tour the country's biggest milk processor, Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited, later in the day.

He leaves today after a three-day official visit en route to Lesotho to attend the Southern African International Dialogue (SAID), a forum established to discuss various issues affecting the region and the way forward.

He was accompanied by his wife, Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali.