25,000 Brits set to quit Zimbabwe

Ministers have drawn up plans to evacuate up to 25,000 British passport holders from strife-torn Zimbabwe, it was reported last night.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is said to have ordered an emergency planning committee to finalise plans for a mass evacuation after receiving alarming reports of the deteriorating situation.

The official Foreign Office evaluation was that Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who faces presidential elections in March, is unlikely to relinquish power without a violent struggle.

It fears either a repressive crackdown before the elections or a civil war afterwards if Mugabe - now seen as a dictator - uses fraud to cling to power.

Yesterday pro-democracy figures in Zimbabwe claimed Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party had launched a new phase in its violent campaign for the elections, and was in the process of declaring all rural areas a "no-go zone" to the opposition.

The Foreign Office says there are about 40,000 British nationals in Zimbabwe and 25,000 have registered with the British High Commission.

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