Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, accused of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, denied in court yesterday that he had ever conspired to overthrow the government.

The leader of the official opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told the Harare High Court he never had any discussions about a coup with Canadian Ari Ben Menashe, as the state alleges.

Tsvangirai recounted two meetings with Menashe, a political consultant, and how he and two party officials were duped into believing Menashe was genuinely interested in promoting the MDC's image.

Menashe had promised Tsvangirai and two senior members of his party, Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela that he would help promote and lobby for international support for the MDC and raise funds for the opposition party.

"I believed him. I was very impressed with his credentials – I had no reason to doubt he was bona fide," Tsvangirai told the court.

He said there was no mention of a request to Menashe to carry out the assassination of Mugabe in a transcript of an audiotape recorded at an earlier meeting in London.

"There is no reference. If a request was made, it should have been recorded," he said.

The state accuses Tsvangirai of asking for help to eliminate Mugabe ahead of 2002 presidential elections, which the opposition leader lost to Mugabe.

A grainy and partially audible black and white videotape has been produced in court as evidence of that meeting.

Tsvangirai denies the charges, for which he could be hanged.

He told the court that after the London meeting the next meeting with Menashe was supposed to be in the US "where arrangements would be made for me to meet (Secretary of State) Colin Powell, the director of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and senior administration officials".

The meeting was moved to Montreal by Menashe.

The MDC leader claims he was set up by Menashe, who secretly video-recorded their last meeting in Montreal, to destroy his political career.

It later emerged that Menashe was a political consultant for Mugabe's government.

The MDC accused Menashe of receiving $100 000 from the Harare government to trap Tsvangirai.

Defence lawyer George Bizos argued at the start of the trial last year that "those monies were paid for services for the purposes of entrapment and preparing evidence in an attempt to prosecute" the opposition leader. – Sapa-AFP.