Michael Ancram has spoken of the "real crisis" he saw in Zimbabwe during a recent trip to the troubled African country.

The shadow foreign secretary covertly travelled to Zimbabwe last week, experiencing at first hand the problems caused by president Robert Mugabe's determination to redistribute land from mainly white farmers.

Critics say the farms are often being taken over by Mugabe's supporters. The president has also come under fire for implementing draconian censorship laws, clamping down on foreign and domestic reporting.

Ancram said food shortages in Zimbabwe were reaching crisis-point. "I saw fields which are not prepared to be sown, I saw wheat fields with no wheat in them, and on the other side I saw all the early signs of famine," he told BBC1's Breakfast With Frost.

"I saw 100 of the 85,000 black farm workers who have been thrown off the farms without food, without possessions, without homes. There is a real crisis impending and it's all politically made by Mugabe."

He added: "This famine is going to be made worse in South Africa, in Botswana, in Malawi and other countries because of what Robert Mugabe's doing in Zimbabwe."

Ancram said foreign secretary Jack Straw should urge his European Union counterparts to extend the targeted sanctions aimed at Mugabe's regime.

Currently, Mugabe and 19 government and military officials have had their European assets frozen and are prevented from travelling to the EU.

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change has called for the sanctions to be extended to other individuals, such as the president's business supporters.

The shadow foreign secretary gave his backing to the call. "What is important is to try and ensure that the pressure is brought to bear on Robert Mugabe and his henchmen," he said.

"I hope that the European ministers meeting tomorrow in Brussels will look again at the targeted sanctions which have been imposed which are simply not working and which are regarded as a sort of mockery in Zimbabwe to tighten them up."

"This is a political crisis for all the black people in Zimbabwe and around Zimbabwe as well. The world cannot turn its back on it."