LONDON (Sapa-AFP) - Britain is "reviewing" Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's honorary knighthood, a government spokesman said Monday, amid reports that the first steps had been taken to revoke the title.

Britain's International Development Secretary said earlier that he would neither speak to nor shake hands with the Zimbabwean leader at a UN food crisis summit, which opens in Rome on Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, Channel 4 News television reported, without citing its sources, that the first steps had been taken to strip Mugabe of the knighthood.

"We understand the calls from those who wish to see the knighthood removed, and we are currently reviewing it," a spokesman for the foreign ministry told AFP.

"We don't rule out taking further action in the future, but our focus is on providing support for the people of Zimbabwe now and pushing for policy reform."

The spokesman declined to provide any further details, and could not comment on whether or not such action had been taken in the past, or on what the procedure would be.

Mugabe, who will contest a presidential election run-off later this month, was awarded the honorary knighthood in 1994 by then prime minister John Major's government.

The two countries have long had fraught relations -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown boycotted a European Union-Africa summit in Portugal in December over Mugabe's attendance.

Former rebel leader Mugabe has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.