Harare — FINANCE Minister Tendai Biti on Friday said he never wanted to join the inclusive Government and had reluctantly done so after being overruled by his party, MDC-T, and its leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.

Minister Biti, who is also MDC secretary-general, said he was left with no option when the party's national council resolved to join the inclusive Government with Zanu-PF and another MDC formation.

"I took this job because Mr Tsvangirai asked me to do it. As you know, I didn't want to be part of this Government but after the party's national council resolved that we should go in, I had no option," said Minister Biti, responding to a question on whether he would consider quitting.

Minister Biti was speaking during a television interview with a local independent production house in which members of the public present were also given a chance to ask him questions.

He said when he agreed to join the inclusive Government, he was aware of the challenges he would face and was not surprised with the criticism being directed at him.

"I am not going to quit, because I knew that I was going to swim in sewage," he said.

Minister Biti said the only time he would quit was if he was asked to compromise on issues of principle, one of them being his stance to do away with the Zimbabwe dollar -- at least for now.

"If someone is to ask me to bring back the Zimbabwe dollar, then there will be a vacancy on the sixth floor at the Government Complex and I will go back to my law firm (Honey and Blanckenberg)," said Minister Biti.

"I am happy that the criticism that I am getting is not coming from the Government, but from some quasi-government institutions."

He said the debate around the Zimbabwe dollar should only be ignited around November next year when he presents the 2011 National Budget and not now.

"The Zimbabwe dollar has been an instrument of arbitrage and rent-seeking behaviour. It had become an instrument of theft, so we can't allow that," he said.

Turning to the US$510 million loan from the International Monetary Fund, Minister Biti said the country's debt stood at US$5,7 billion.

"This debt accrued from 2000 and since I became minister, I have not accrued any debt, not even a cent," he said.

Minister Biti said his recommendations were that Zimbabwe declares itself a Heavily Indebted Poor Country so that the debt could be written off and the country would start afresh.

Zimbabwe, said Minister Biti, was too poor to pay the debt. He said, in his view, it was morally wrong to pay the debt.

"Even If I had US$100 billion in the Government account, I would not want to pay the US$5,7 billion because of the state of our infrastructure, the schools, hospitals, roads. It's morally bad to pay it. The next question is, are we poor?" asked Minister Biti.

"Yes, of course, we are poor. Our infrastructure has collapsed, 90 percent of our people live below the Poverty Datum Line, over 70 percent of our children have failed to pay examination fees, we import more than we export, our current account is minus 9 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. I am saying to my colleagues, give me a solution better than this. If you look from all indices, yes, we are poor."

Minister Biti, however, insists that people were free to proffer other suggestions other than declaring Zimbabwe Heavily Indebted Poor Country, "but from the look of it, it seemed to be the only way out".

However, others are of a different view as they argue that Zimbabwe is rich by the simple measure of its abundant natural resources and minerals which could attract investors and earn the country the money to be able to repay its debt.

They argue that by declaring itself a Heavily Indebted Poor Country, Zimbabwe would be surrendering the control of its economy to Western powers, who have imposed sanctions that have wrecked the economy, as part of the regime change agenda.

Political analysts have criticised Minister Biti over his wish to declare Zimbabwe heavily indebted, saying it portrays the country as a basket case, ready to be taken over by rich and powerful nations.

They also point to those countries that have taken this approach who have literally enslaved themselves to Western powers who control the lending institutions.

The declaration, say analysts, would sub-contract the country's sovereignty to the powerful nations, at the expense of local people.