Current leader, Levy Mwanawasa, has asked parliament to remove Frederick Chiluba's immunity from prosecution after accusing him and his associates of embezzling around $80m.

Parliament unanimously voted to remove Mr Chiluba's immunity but the High Court has imposed an interim order halting any prosecutions until the court has had the chance to judge on the legitimacy of the parliamentary vote to lift the former president's immunity from prosecution.

I will be ready to pardon him. I will be ready to put my head on the chopping board.

President Mwanawasa

The court hearing on the legality of the decision has been set for 29 July.

President Mwanawasa told the government-owned Zambia Daily Mail newspaper that he would give Mr Chiluba a presidential pardon if he repaid the money that he is accused of stealing from the state.

Mr Chiluba denies the accusations and is fighting the parliamentary decision on immunity through the courts.

Mentally sick

President Mwanawasa said that relations his relations with his predecessor were now strained and he wanted to put an end to that.

"I am prepared to give him the presidential pardon. The constitution gives me those powers. If Dr Chiluba comes and says these are the assets I got from the people of Zambia then I will be ready to pardon him.

Zambians have protested against Mr Chiluba

"I will be ready to put my head on the chopping board. I will say it will not be right to send him to prison," he said, according to the newspaper.

He added that Mr Chiluba was a former president and should be given the "comfort he deserved".

The president was also reported as challenging Mr Chiluba to produce the four medical reports presented to him when he was in power on Mr Mwanawasa's state of health.

The Zambia Daily Mail said the president had asked why the former president had recommended him to be the Movement for Multiparty Democracy's presidential candidate if he believed he was not well.

Mr Chiluba has said, since the victory, that Mr Mwanawasa's health had been impaired by the consequences of a car crash.

"It means he was not being fair and honest to the people of Zambia by giving them a mentally sick person for their president," Mr Mwanawasa said.

He said there was no doubt that the accident disturbed his health, but he was now fit to discharge functions as president.