Zimbabwe's opposition leader, on trial for plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, yesterday said the political consultant he had hired to help promote his party introduced the concepts of "elimination" and a "military coup" during a meeting.

Morgan Tsvangirai, giving evidence for the third day in the Harare High Court on treason charges, said that during a meeting with former Israeli intelligence agent and now Canadian political consultant Ari Ben Menashe, it was Menashe who on several occasions introduced the words "elimination" and "coup".

"There is nowhere in this transcript where I ... made a request to murder Mugabe. It's him (Menashe) who was using sinister words that I have denied," said Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), referring to a transcript of a videotape secretly recorded by Menashe of a meeting in Canada in December 2001.

"Because of that, a tense atmosphere ensued, it caused a lot of uneasiness (in the meeting)," said Tsvangirai, who has denied ever conspiring or discussing the possible killing of Mugabe.

Menashe is the state's key witness in the case.

He testified against Tsvangirai over five weeks.

Tsvangirai said he had avoided confrontation with Menashe in the meeting because the political consultant was temperamental, and he did not want to clash with him in front of an American official whom he wanted to support his party.

He said that at one time during the meeting he got very angry after Menashe mentioned the words 'murder' and 'elimination'.

"I said I had agreed to work with Dickens and Madison (Menashe's firm) because it was not in the business of assassinating presidents but it was hired to promote our image and fundraise for us," said the opposition leader.

The MDC had in 2001 consulted Menashe's firm to help promote its image and help raise funds internationally for presidential elections in 2002.

But it later emerged that the same firm was also a political consultant for Mugabe's government.

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

If convicted, Tsvangirai, who also faces a separate treason charge for organising anti-Mugabe protests in 2003, could be sentenced to death. – Sapa-AFP.