20110419
reuters

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi is seeking to expel the British ambassador for criticising the southern African country's leadership for being autocratic, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.

The move will likely antagonise, Britain, a major donor of aid to the impoverished country, which already faces a freeze of millions of dollars in foreign assistance from countries protesting its hostile stance toward homosexuals and a crackdown on media.

The British Foreign Office said in a statement on Tuesday that Malawi is considering declaring the British high commissioner (ambassador) to the country, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, "persona non grata".

"If the Government of Malawi pursued such action there were likely to be consequences affecting the full range of issues in the bilateral relationship," Acting Permanent Under Secretary Geoffrey Adams told Malawi's charge d'affaires in London, the statement said.

Malawi's Weekend Nation published excerpts of what it said was a March 2011 British diplomatic cable where the mission to the country said: "President (Bingu wa) Mutharika is becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism."

The newspaper did not disclose how it obtained the document.

Diplomatic sources at the British mission confirmed the authenticity of cable.

The British High Commission (embassy) press and political affairs assistant in Lilongwe, Lewis Kulisewa, told Reuters that the ambassador was summoned by the foreign affairs minister on Monday to explain what was said in the cable.