Australia last played Zimbabwe in a World Cup warm-up game in St Vincent

Prime Minister John Howard ordered Australia to pull out of a scheduled tour to Zimbabwe in September.

Zimbabwe cricket officials responded by saying they would not play the series anywhere else.

"We can now say definitely that the series will not be happening inside or outside Zimbabwe," said Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young.

"The next international engagement for Australia will be the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September."

Paul Marsh of the Australian Cricketers' Association said the players would have been happy to take on Zimbabwe in a neutral country.

"But that decision has obviously been taken out of their hands and what there is left to do is to look forward to the Twenty20 World Cup and beyond," he added.

It is a device, it is a method of sending a very strong signal of disapproval Australia Prime Minister John Howard on the boycott

Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was happy the matter had now been put to rest.

"It's much more difficult for us to ban the cricketers from going to a third country.

"I'm glad the Zimbabwe Cricket Union has decided not to proceed with those games and that means we can, for the time being, not have any cricket between the world's greatest cricket team and Zimbabwe.

"Hopefully there will be political reform in Zimbabwe before too long and full, normal cricket relations can resume," he commented.

The Australian government, meanwhile, has announced $15m (�7.57m) in funding for human rights groups working in Zimbabwe - a move likely to further antagonise president Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's government has condemned Australia's boycott.

"This is also a racist ploy to kill our local cricket since our cricket team is now dominated by black players as we slowly transform cricket from being an elite sport," Zimbabwe's Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told the state-owned Herald newspaper.

It has emerged that several members of the Australian team had been considering their own personal boycott, had the tour gone ahead as originally scheduled.

Opener Matthew Hayden said "I was seriously considering my position this time", while wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist added: "If we can play them elsewhere, then I'm very supportive of the idea."