The Zimbabwe government plans to relocate the country's capital from Harare to President Robert Mugabe's rural home, reports say.

According to the privately owned NewsDay newspaper plans are afoot to move the seat of government to Zvimba district about 40 kilometers west of Harare.

Zvimba is Mugabe's birth place and in the past there have been complaints that the district always receives the biggest chunk of funds for infrastructure projects despite being among the least populated.

Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo who also hails from Zvimba and is spearheading the project said it was meant to ease congestion in Harare.

Originally the government only planned to build a new parliament in the Mt Hampden area on the outskirts of Harare.

Chombo said the plans now included building new government offices, State House and headquarters of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The minister from Mugabe's Zanu PF party said the new site was the original choice for the British colonialists who settled in Harare in the 1890s.

"The satellite city will be properly planned with residential houses, state-of-the-art shops, hotels and offices," Chombo told the paper.

"This will ease congestion in Harare, which has become heavily populated to the extent that facilities such as water supply are under pressure."

But it appears the plan has not been approved by the coalition government with Mugabe's opponents saying they were not consulted.

Jameson Timba, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister Office said Cabinet had only approved the relocation of parliament to the area.

"There are no such plans as yet which have been discussed by government," Timba said.

According to authorities Harare, which has a population of 1.6 million is now too congested with the increasing number of residents putting strain on infrastructure meant to cater for a small population.

The city is failing to cope with increasing vehicular traffic and can hardly supply residents with enough drinking water.

However, critics say relocating the capital city is not the ideal solution as government is struggling to provide basic infrastructure and Harare is already seen as too advanced compared to other parts of the country.