The firebrand youth leader of South Africa's ruling party has made it clear that he will not be silenced, demanding Zimbabwe-style land seizures from white farmers and vowing to keep singing a controversial song.

Under pressure after the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche stoked fears of racial strife, the African National Congress (ANC) told members to avoid inflammatory songs and comment.

Youth League leader Julius Malema said he would accede to the demand to drop the phrase "Kill the Boer" from a song that dates from the era of the struggle against apartheid but would keep singing the rest of it.

Boer is the Afrikaans word for a farmer.

"We will take out the 'Kill the Boer' in the song," Mr Malema told a press conference.

"We do so because the ANC says we should restrain ourselves."

Mr Malema, 29, is accused by critics of encouraging racial division 16 years after the end of white minority rule.

Opposition parties have called on president Jacob Zuma to rein him in.

But Mr Malema has a passionate following within the youth wing and among many other black South Africans who complain they have not benefited as much as they should from majority rule.

Mr Malema dismissed accusations that his singing of "Kill the Boer" was a factor in Saturday's murder of Mr Terreblanche by two black workers - which police suspect was over a pay dispute.

"We have no blood on our hands," said Mr Malema, who threw a British journalist out of the news conference, saying he had a "white tendency".

Mr Malema was speaking after his return from a visit to Zimbabwe where he met president Robert Mugabe and hailed the seizure of white-owned farms to give to landless blacks as a success South Africa should emulate.

"We are in a serious economic struggle that seeks to redistribute the wealth to the people," he said.

"This is what we need the ANC to champion. Land reform in Zimbabwe has been very successful."

Mr Malema says land seizures in South Africa should be "aggressive" and "militant" but says he is not calling for violence.

Mr Mugabe's critics say his land confiscations helped ruin the country's rich agriculture and drove more than 3 million Zimbabweans overseas - most to seek work in South Africa.

Parliament in South Africa is set to review a draft policy later this month for a new land tenure system, although the government controlling Africa's biggest economy and largest maize producer says this will not mean nationalising land.

- Reuters