Jack Straw has been filmed shaking hands with President Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

The foreign secretary met Mugabe at the United Nations in New York last week.

In a statement he said: "I had not expected to see President Mugabe.

"Because it was quite dark in that corner I was being pushed towards shaking hands with somebody just as a matter of courtesy and then it transpired it was President Mugabe.

"But the fact that there is a serious disagreement between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom does not mean that you should then be discourteous or rude."

But shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram condemned the handshake.
 
"This is a scandalous betrayal of the men and women of Zimbabwe who are suffering at the hands of Mugabe's blood stained regimes," he said.