"Roy Clarke will not have more than 24 hours in the country," Home Affairs Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha told a group of Mwanawasa's supporters who marched on the interior ministry to demand Clarke's deportation.
"I want to tell the nation that action has already been taken," Shikapwasha said.
But Clarke said he had not been served any notice.
"I am not aware of the deportation order being issued," Clarke said.
Earlier, home affairs permanent secretary Peter Mumba said he had recommended the interior minister issue a deportation order against Clarke, who writes a column in the Post newspaper.
The article, modelled along the lines of George Orwell's "Animal Farm," referred to the person in charge of the farm as "Mawelewele", or fool in the local Nyanja dialect.
"When you insult the president, you insult the people he represents. He should go back and start writing about his own people," Mumba said.
The article, published last Thursday, also referred to ministers as "long-legged giraffes, red-lipped, long-figured baboons".
Clarke has lived in Zambia for many years and is married to a prominent Zambian women's rights activist.
The editor of the Post, Fred Mmembe, said he would take responsibility for the article and urged the government to deal with him and not Clarke.
"I will be very surprised if President Mwanawasa will sanction such nonsense," Mmembe was quoted as saying by his newspaper.
In the past, the Zambian government has deported foreigners for allegedly insulting the president or leaders in government. – Sapa-AFP.
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