Harare, Aug 26 (DPA) President Robert Mugabe has returned home from 'a private visit' to Dubai, government officials said Wednesday, contrary to reports that he was undergoing treatment there.

An official who requested anonymity said Mugabe had returned home Tuesday evening in the Air Zimbabwe plane that flew him there last Wednesday.

Earlier, Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa said: 'As far as I know, he is well, unless it is a minor ailment like flu which might have happened while he was away.' Of reports in the South African Press that he had been admitted to hospital in the Gulf emirate, he said, 'We are reading it in the newspapers'.

Official spokesman George Charamba was not available for comment.

Mugabe was not present at a meeting of his former ruling ZANU(PF) party's central committee Wednesday, but officials pointed out he had not been at the two previous meetings of the body either.

There was no explanation in the state media Wednesday for his failure to speak at the burial of ZANU(PF) politburo member Richard Hove on Tuesday.