Maputo — Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has backtracked on earlier inflammatory statements, denying that he had ever boasted that he would set the country on fire, if the results of last week's general elections were not fair and transparent.

Interviewed by the independent daily "O Pais", in the northern city of Nampula, Dhlakama explained "I did not say that I would burn down the country, I said that Mozambique will be burnt".

"This means", he added, "that in mobilizing these people (i.e. the crowd surrounding him in a Nampula street) for a demonstration, let us suppose that the police open fire, and Mozambique would be set alight. I did not say that I am going to light the fire. That's not me. I could have done that in 1994, 1999 and 2004 (the dates of the previous general elections)".

"In fact, if there is no good sense, no dialogue to reach a solution, these people will burn the country down", he said. "Just because I am here, this place is full of people. Imagine if I got on top of this car and said "let's have a demonstration". What would happen here?"

Dhlakama is technically correct: in his statements on his arrival in Nampula last Thursday he did not say "I will burn the country down", but that is a reasonable interpretation of what he meant.

His actual words, broadcast over and over again on Mozambican television channels, were "Mozambique will burn. Flames", and "tolerance has come to an end in Mozambique either the country will burn, or democracy is over and we shall take power by force".

"O Pais" came across Dhlakama as he was buying furniture in a Nampula supermarket, and a curious crowd gathered to gaze at the opposition leader. He was accompanied by the Renamo provincial delegate in Nampula, Lucia Afate.

He told "O Pais" that he was buying goods for a house he had acquired in Nampula, "because I want to leave the hotel".

This can only feed the speculation that Dhlakama and Afate are lovers. For months the story has circulated that the two were married clandestinely in Nampula (the most extreme version claims that this was an Islamic ceremony, though neither Dhlakama nor Afate are Moslems).

Dhlakama has been living for months in Nampula, leaving his party headquarters in Maputo to look after itself. The Nampula first secretary of the ruling Frelimo Party, Agostinho Trinta, even claimed that the main reason why Dhlakama suffered such a disastrous defeat in the elections was his infatuation with Lucia Afate.

"We all know that it was Lucia who greatly distorted Dhlakama's programme", said Trinta. "Instead of waging an election campaign, he was just following Lucia. How could he win an election like that?"

This is rather a cheap jibe. Although he started a week late, Dhlakama most certainly did campaign energetically - although the campaign was largely restricted to north of the Zambezi, and particularly to Nampula province.

Asked about Trinta's claims, Dhlakama said he would not respond to "provocations".

Trinta added that if Dhlakama wanted to do better in elections he should stop making threats, "organise his own party, and stop imagining that he can take power by force". Renamo was quite unable to wage a new war, he said.

Renamo could fight in the past, Trinta pointed out, because it relied on support first from Ian Smith's Rhodesia, and later from the apartheid regime in South Africa. He suggested that Renamo members and supporters should ignore their leader's incitement to violence.