President Barack Obama is extending sanctions against a range of Zimbabwean leaders whom the United States accuses of undermining democracy in the country.

In a notice released by the White House  in Washington DC, Obama said the leaders’ actions had “contributed to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region.”

He re-imposed for one year sanctions first introduced by former President George W. Bush. He cited Bush’s justification that the leaders posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States.”

President Obama's statement on Wednesday comes on the heels of Prime Minster Morgan Tsvangirai's first address to parliament, in which he called on the West to lift sanctions.

President Bush first imposed restrictions on Zimbabwean leaders in 2003, and expanded them in 2005 and in July last year, when he refused  to accept Zimbabwe's national elections as democratic.

It has taken almost a year since that election for Zimbabwe to form a unity government. The country faces a widespread health, humanitarian and economic crisis.

In a news conference last month, Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe might need up to U.S.$5 billion for reconstruction.