Zimbabwe named a new board on Tuesday to consider an application to reopen the country's largest private newspaper, four years after it was banned.

The government said it was replacing a commission which had rejected a licence application for Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe's (ANZ) Daily News and Daily News on Sunday, which have been critical of President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's Supreme Court ruled in 2003 the company was publishing its two titles outside the law because it refused to register them under tough media laws introduced following Mugabe's controversial re-election.

In May this year a High Court judge ordered the Media and Information Commission (MIC) to consider a fresh application for the newspaper, and on Tuesday the government said it had named a new board to handle the application.

"I now direct (that) this reconstituted MIC board deals with the aforesaid application of the ANZ, paying particular attention to the law and parameters set by all court rulings on the matter," Information and Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said.

However previous commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso -- whom the newspaper accused of bias -- retained his position.

Critics say Mugabe's government has stifled democracy through its crackdown on private media, while the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has demanded the repeal of stiff media laws before next year's election.

The Daily News -- which began publishing in 1999 -- was critical of Mugabe's government and had seen its readership rising sharply as the country's economic and political crisis deepened.