Zimbabwe's information minister insisted on Tuesday that a cholera epidemic was under control, and slammed the "dirty mouths" of foreign leaders calling for President Robert Mugabe to step down.

"I don't have kind words for all heads of state who have made utterances against Zimbabwe one by one, and I hope this is the last time they open their dirty mouths on Zimbabwe," information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told reporters.

"After squeezing and strangling the country with sanctions and contaminating it with cholera and anthrax, the West is seeking to use the window of opportunity provided by the disaster to justify military intervention," he said.

"The cholera situation is under control," Ndlovu insisted.

"We have enough chemicals to purify the water. We have got enough foreign currency to buy pipes" to mend sanitation lines, he said.

Ndlovu accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of acting as a puppet for western nations while ignoring regional leaders in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).

"If Tsvangirai was a genuine African leader with feelings for Zimbabweans, he would have taken heed of the call by Sadc to facilitate a speedy formation of an inclusive government, but his actions show that he is a puppet of the West," he said.

US President George W. Bush on Tuesday joined the growing calls for Mugabe to step down and urged other African leaders to push for his ouster.

South Africa has rebuffed the calls for Mugabe to resign, and among African nations, so far only leaders in Botswana and Kenya have said that the 84-year-old should go.

Ndlovu singled out Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga for criticism, after he called for co-ordinated efforts to force Mugabe from power.

"Raila Odinga, our brother from East Africa, he must know that we are brothers and sisters," Ndlovu said.

"It's only Odinga's mouth which has got bad breadth, the moment he opens it spoils the good relations. He must shut up," the minister said.