President Robert Mugabe is to invoke special powers to seize white-owned farmland without compensation and redistribute it to poor blacks, effectively legalising the recent wholesale occupation of farms led by veterans of the independence war.
Mr Mugabe's spokesman, Mr George Charamba, said yesterday the president would give himself the authority to continue the confiscations for six months.
The opposition accused Mr Mugabe of misusing his powers. The leader of the white farmers' union, Mr David Hasluck, said: "The union feels that this is a lack of good faith on behalf of the government while we are trying to negotiate in good faith with the war veterans in an attempt to stop violence and prepare the situation for a free and fair election."
Britain's foreign secretary, Mr Robin Cook, said: "The confiscation of farms without compensation would be a big step backwards. There can be no justification for this. This cannot be the way to solve the genuine problems of land reform." Mr Cook yesterday postponed a visit to the Middle East, planned for May 8th, at least partly because he is concerned at the prospect of increasing violence in Zimbabwe.
The announcement from Mr Mugabe's office appears to reflect a new confidence before the parliamentary elections, which are expected to be called soon.
Increasing violence against, and intimidation of, the government's opponents, and an agreement by white farmers which effectively ends their political activity in many rural areas, has delivered a severe blow to the campaign to topple Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
It is a sign that the opposition is shying away from further confrontation that the trades unions congress called off the strikes and protest rallies planned to mark May Day today and asked its members to stay at home and pray.
The main opposition leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), insisted that his supporters would not be intimidated.
"We will maintain our activities. Intimidation can never win a vote. We are the majority," he said.
But the impact of the coercion could be seen at an MDC rally in the opposition's heartland yesterday Fewer than 200 people turned out for the meeting in the Harare township of Chitungwiza, and most of them declined to wear MDC badges or T-shirts.
One young man said his family had urged him not to go. "People are very afraid to show they support Tsvangirai," he said.
Zanu-PF has effectively conceded a general election victory to the opposition in the cities, leaving rural areas to decide whether the ruling party will be humiliated at the ballot box.
But that issue appears to have been settled by an agreement between the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents most of the country's 4,500 white farmers, and the war veterans' leader, Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi.
Mr Hunzvi has promised to end the violence in which at least 14 farmers and farm workers have been killed, and hundreds beaten. In return, the union has agreed that its members will stop supporting the MDC and curtail opposition rallies and activities on their farms.
It is a blow to the opposition, which has relied on white farmers and businessmen for funds, communications and transport in the campaign, and was hoping to gather considerable backing from farm workers.