"The 700 families will be relocated if all goes well at the end of this month," national parks spokesman Edward Mbewe told AFP.

He said the villages fell under the proposed Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou Transfrontier Park on Zimbabwe's borders with Mozambique and South Africa.

"We had hoped to relocate them last month but we could not because of other logistical constraints," Mbewe said.

"The families ... are residing in a corridor where we would want the animals to freely move."

Mbewe said the parks authorities planned to declare the area a protected zone reserved for endangered rhinoceros species.

The transfrontier park launched four years ago will merge Kruger National Park in South Africa, Gaza in Mozambique and Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe to allow free movement of animals and tourists.

Mbewe did not give the specific date when the families would be moved to an area next to the reserve.

He said government would help uprooted families form co-operatives to buy shares in the proposed game reserve.

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