South Africa's Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister has expressed concern at the economic situation in Zimbabwe, where annual inflation is over 1,000%

BBC News:

Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad said the crisis was having an impact on the whole southern African region.

He said South Africa was continuing to engage with the Zimbabwean government and opposition.

Critics say South Africa should have taken a stronger line on human rights abuses by its northern neighbour.

"We have been concerned about the deteriorating economic situation, where inflation has now reached 1,000%, and the predictions are it can get worse," Mr Pahad told a parliamentary briefing in Cape Town.

"We remain concerned not only about the effects on the people of Zimbabwe, but the effect on the region as a whole, because Zimbabwe is an important player."

Mr Pahad referred to reports that 2m Zimbabweans were living illegally in South Africa

"By any standards this is high - even if it's not as much as this, it is high," he said.

"Our own missions in Zimbabwe are reporting that they are having increasing numbers of people seeking visas to come to South Africa."

He said South Africa remained "committed to our view that we can only contribute with other countries in the world to create a climate within which the Zimbabweans can solve their problems. There is nothing we can impose on them".

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe blames the country's economic crisis on sanctions, while his critics say it is the result of the seizure of white-owned commercial farmland.

Correspondents say emigration from Zimbabwe has been further fuelled by an urban clean-up a year ago, in which the United Nations says 700,000 people lost their homes or livelihoods.

Tales from Mugabeland