Zimbabwe faces an "immediate and mounting" humanitarian crisis, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has warned.

He stressed the importance of stopping the "madness and badness" of Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe from impacting on the nation's people.

The idea of military action resolving this from outside is crazy

Jack Straw

But he insisted that Tory comparisons between UK government action in Kosovo with its current dealings with Zimbabwe were "just silly".

Mr Straw said military intervention would not help resolve the current crisis which threatens the lives of millions of Zimbabweans.

Last week Prince Charles reportedly urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to do more to help British citizens fleeing Zimbabwe.

'Sense of frustration'

The foreign secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday: "There is an immediate and mounting humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.

"It is hitting white farmers at the moment ... and their plight is terrible.

"The plight of their black employees, who are being thrown off the land, is even worse."

Ancram: Questions why the government is 'pathetically silent and inactive' over Zimbabwe

There was a "sense of frustration" among foreign ministers in South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique at the way "in which Mugabe's bad and mad economic and social policies are impoverishing, not just Zimbabwe, but the whole of the region".

Mr Straw said while he felt the same frustration as everyone else over the situation, he reasoned: "In the end, the future of Zimbabwe has to be in the hands of the Zimbabwean people.

"What we have to do, however, is to support the forces of democracy in Zimbabwe meanwhile, to sustain the people against starvation and increasingly, to isolate the Mugabe regime and that's exactly what we are doing in concert with the international community."

'Isolate' Mugabe

But, he said: "If I had a magic wand. If there was some way - people say do more - well, by God, I am in the market for any additional suggestions about the more that we can do.

"We have more than doubled the food aid and humanitarian aid we are providing to Zimbabwe.

"That is a way of ensuring the madness and badness of Mugabe does not impact to any great degree on the poor people of Zimbabwe.

"What we have done ... is isolate Mugabe."

In a letter to Mr Straw on Wednesday, shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram made a comparison between UK action taken in the Balkans and against ex-Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic with action taken against Zimbabwe and Mugabe.

'Evil as Milosevic'

He asked: "What is the difference between state murder and torture in Kosovo and in Zimbabwe?

"Why was the government so keen to take direct action in Kosovo and is pathetically silent and inactive on Zimbabwe? Mugabe is every bit as evil as Milosevic."

But Mr Straw retorted: "If Mr Ancram is saying invade, military action, then let him say so.

Straw: Mugabe would 'relish' a western invasion

"If he is not saying so, then he must accept that the comparison with Kosovo and Afghanistan is just silly."

He said: "The idea of military action resolving this from outside is crazy.

"It would lead to a blood bath. It would lead to the immediate declaration of Mugabe as a hero for the whole of southern Africa.

"There would be no international coalition for it.

"I cannot think of anything that Mugabe would more relish than the idea that western powers were seeking to get together some kind of military invasion force."

Free and fair elections

When the UK was the colonial power for the then Rhodesia, it had been unable to muster such a force to deal with a rebellion by white settlers in 1965, said Mr Straw.

The UK had to help, increasingly, to help the "forces of democracy" in Zimbabwe, to enable them to hold free and fair elections as soon as possible so the people can choose their own leader, he added.

Sanctions imposed by the European Union earlier this year were tightened and targeted against the leaders of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

Opponents of President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe have rebuked the UK government for failing to do enough to help the plight of Britons in the troubled country.

The criticism from Zimbabwean campaign groups came as the first white farmers were being evicted from their land by militants.