The Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Crispian Hollis, has offered his prayerful support to Zimbabweans suffering under Robert Mugabe's government and the escalating economic insecurity.

"In this most Holy of Weeks, I applaud my brother bishops in Zimbabwe for their courage in speaking out in defence of the oppressed and the poor people of their country, offering the light of Christ to their people in these most difficult and desperate times," said Bishop Hollis, also Chair of the Department for International Affairs of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

His promise of support came in response to a pastoral letter from the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference which spoke of the ongoing suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans.

"The people of Zimbabwe are suffering. More and more people are getting angry, even from among those who had seemed to be doing reasonably well under the circumstances," the statement said.

The Zimbabwean bishops called on the country's authorities to turn over a new leaf at Easter and take necessary steps to halt the suffering.

"Our country is in deep crisis," the bishops said. "A crisis is an unstable situation of extreme danger and difficulty. Yet, it can also be turned into a moment of grace and of a new beginning, if those responsible for causing the crisis repent, heed the cry of the people and foster a change of heart and mind especially during the imminent Easter season, so our nation can rise to new life with the risen Lord," they said.

The bishops blamed the radical land reform programme brought in by the Zimbabwean government seven years ago for the current critical food shortages and chronic unemployment, which now stands at over 80 per cent across Zimbabwe.

Inflation stands at over 1,600 per cent in Zimbabwe, the highest rate in the world. The bishops said it had "made the life of ordinary Zimbabweans unbearable, regardless of their political preferences".

They warned, however, that the problem could not be reversed unless corruption was rooted out.