Harare — BRITISH premier Tony Blair, has laid into President Robert Mugabe's government, branding it a "disgrace" to Africa, in a development that put a damper on talk of building bridges between the former colonial power and its erstwhile colony.

Responding to questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday last week, Blair said Zimbabwe had cast a shadow over the whole of Southern Africa with its poor human rights record and policies.

He was answering a question from Conservative legislator Michael Jack, who wanted him to explain why western diplomatic efforts appeared to have floundered in dealing with Harare in light of reports of worsening socio-economic conditions as well as reported rights abuses.

"The right honourable gentleman is absolutely right in his analysis," said Blair. "The question is, what is the solution? I am afraid that the solutions are necessarily limited. Yes, what the regime in Zimbabwe is doing is a disgrace. People are suffering in a country that is potentially wealthy. We as a nation have had to give humanitarian assistance and food aid to people in circumstances in which, if the country were properly run, they could be looked after properly," Blair said.

His comments come on the backcloth of President Mugabe's statements that he was prepared to build bridges with London.

Harare accuses Britain and its allies of working with opposition parties to topple an elected government and imposing sanctions on the ruling elite as a way to hit back at President Mugabe's government for embarking on land expropriations.

"Blair must talk to us," President Mugabe said in February when receiving the new British ambassador Andrew Pocock.

The UK has, however, set terms for building bridges, with a British spokesman in Harare telling this newspaper two weeks ago that the Zimba-bwean government needed to address all concerns of the international community as set out in the United Nations report on Operation Muramba-tsvina, among other issues.

Blair added: "The only issue is what we can do about it. What we are doing in this country is our best to ensure that the right diplomatic pressure is put on the Zimbabwe-an regime to change, but I am afraid there is a limit to what we can do. I believe that while Zimbabwe remains as it is, it casts a shadow over that whole part of southern Africa. It is a tragedy, particularly - as the right hon. gentleman rightly says - for the people concerned."

Despite the icy relations on the political front, the UK has emerged as one of the largest donors of humanitarian aid in Zimbabwe.

It recently donated over US$18 million towards Zimba-bwe's Consolidated Appeal to raise US$151 million required to feed 4.6 million people reeling from food shortages blamed on drought and the controversial land reforms.