The new demands by the governments to the International Cricket Council add to pressure for a boycott to protest against the regime of President Robert Mugabe.

Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that Australian Prime Minister John Howard is heading a lobbying effort for national cricket boards to ask World Cup organisers to reschedule games.

Mugabe supporters accuse Australia and Britain of wanting to keep cricket "white"

But individual country organisations, including the England and Wales Cricket Board, could face fines and point penalties if they fail to fulfil fixtures in the competition next month.

Australia and Britain have asked their teams to consider not playing in Zimbabwe - where Mr Mugabe's government is accused of human rights abuses against political opponents.

Zimbabwe hit back, saying the two countries were guilty of colonialist policies and wanted to keep cricket "white".

Neither Australia nor Britain has banned its teams from the matches in the country, which is also suffering huge economic and humanitarian problems and where half the population needs food aid.

'Unacceptable'

The same approach has now been taken by New Zealand, where cricket officials have passed on a request from the government asking the ICC to move matches.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said: "We believe that this is the chance for the international community to say that the sort of things that are happening [in Zimbabwe], the abuses of human rights, the undermining of democracy... these are things that are unacceptable."

But Martin Snedden, the chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, said: "Sports bodies are not in a position to make political judgements about which countries sport should be played in, based on those countries' internal political environments.

"These decisions are best left to governments which can, where appropriate, impose appropriate sporting and trade sanctions."

Venue switch

New Zealand is not scheduled to play in the six matches to be hosted by Zimbabwe.

Cricket officials representing India, which is set for a match there, have said they will ignore any calls for a boycott.

We cannot have a situation where cricket authorities are now being pressured to reverse a decision that could jeopardise the staging of this global event in Africa Ncgonde Balfour South African Sports Minister

Correspondents say South Africa - co-hosts of the World Cup with Kenya and Zimbabwe - would be the logical place for games if a boycott was implemented.

But South African officials say they have had no warning to prepare for a venue switch.

South Africa has also backed the right of Zimbabwe to host matches.

Sports Minister Ncgonde Balfour said: "We cannot have a situation where cricket authorities are now being pressured to reverse a decision that could jeopardise the staging of this global event in Africa."