Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister and one of Africa’s more prominent leaders on the world stage, says he is preparing to step down and hopes to take with him a generation of government officials in office since the 1991 overthrow of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

Mr Meles, 54, gave no deadline for his departure, which would be unprecedented in Ethiopia and rare among African liberation leaders who have come to power at the barrel of a gun.