Zimbabwe's government ordered aid groups to halt operations in a move that could hamper food deliveries in the impoverished nation where millions depend on outside help. Aid groups in Zimbabwe were sent a memorandum from social welfare minister Nicholas Goche on Thursday ordering an indefinite suspension of field work. Zimbabwe has been accused of using food aid as a political weapon. Also Thursday, a mob believed loyal to President Robert Mugabe waylaid a convoy of American and British diplomats near the Zimbabwean capital, beating a local staffer, slashing tires and threatening to burn the envoys, the U.S. Embassy said.

The diplomats were looking into political violence before a presidential election runoff, and Thursday's incident was the latest sign of how tense Zimbabwe is as Mugabe prepares to face an opposition leader who led voting in the first round.

Opposition and human rights groups also accuse Mugabe of orchestrating violence to ensure he wins re-election amid growing unpopularity for his heavy-handed rule and the country's economic collapse. Police held the president's runoff rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, for nine hours Wednesday.

Officials in Washington and London said the diplomats were returning from a trip to investigate violence in northern Zimbabwe when they were stopped at a roadblock on the outskirts of Harare, the capital. The convoy was halted for some six hours before it was allowed to drive on.

U.S. Ambassador James McGee, who was not with the convoy, said police and military officers detained the diplomats in an "illegal action." He said they were assisted by a crowd of "war veterans," a group whose members purportedly fought in Zimbabwe's independence war and are Mugabe's fiercest and most violent supporters.

"The war veterans threatened to burn the vehicles with my people inside unless they got out of the vehicles and accompanied the police to a station nearby," McGee told CNN.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Paul Engelstad, told The Associated Press that some in the throng beat one of the embassy's Zimbabwean employees and slashed the tires of some cars in the convoy.

McGee said five Americans, four Britons and three Zimbabwean employees were traveling in three cars.

The U.S. government took complaints about the incident to the United Nations Security Council.

"It is absolutely outrageous, and it is a case of the kind of repression and violence that this government is willing to use against its own people," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of Mugabe's regime.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the attack on British and American diplomats underlined the hardship of life under Mugabe's regime, which he said is "marked by brutal intimidation, by torture ... and by death."

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena denied security agents had threatened the diplomats. He said police at the scene intervened to rescue the diplomats from a threatening mob.

"It's unfortunate when diplomats behave like criminals and distort information," Bvudzijena said. "It is a very sad situation."

McGee said Zimbabwean officials had been informed about the trip as required.

Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said that while the U.S. ambassador had submitted the necessary documents, Britain had not. Matonga also accused the diplomats of handing out election materials supporting the opposition.

Mugabe frequently accuses Britain and the U.S. of plotting to topple him and return Zimbabwe to colonial rule.

Mugabe has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 and was once hailed as a liberator who promoted racial reconciliation and economic empowerment. But he has been accused of clinging to power through election fraud and intimidation, and of destroying his country's economy through the seizure of white-owned farms beginning in 2000.

Millions of Zimbabweans depend on international groups for food and other aid as the economy crumbles. Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused the government of imposing control over food aid to intimidate voters before the runoff.

Welfare minister Goche said he had learned that aid groups were violating the terms of their agreement with the government. He did not elaborate in the brief statement seen by The Associated Press Thursday.

Goche said all aid and development groups were ordered to "suspend all field operations until further notice."

Written By ANGUS SHAW

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