Since the sham election on 27 June, conditions in Zimbabwe have deteriorated. International agencies estimate that 36,000 people have been displaced internally since the first round in March, at least 103 have been murdered and many thousands have received treatment for the injuries they have been dealt by the security forces.

In spite of the promise of the authorities that the ban on their activities was temporary, aid agencies are still denied access to large swathes of the country, a restriction that means 1.5 million people are still unable to access food aid and vital medicines that they need.

We have been clear that words are simply not enough and that the international community as a whole must act. We have said openly that Zimbabwe's crisis is one that the world had a responsibility to respond to. That is why we supported the United States in their decision to table a resolution at the Security Council and to take that resolution to a vote on 11 July.

The draft resolution had the nine votes it needed to pass into law. It was co-sponsored by two African states - Liberia and Sierra Leone. Burkina Faso - an African member of the Council - also voted in favour of it. All European and South American Council members and the USA were behind it.

That it was vetoed by Russia and China despite this clear and broad majority is something that the ordinary people of Zimbabwe - the victims of that violence and who are denied that food and medicine - will not be able to understand.

I believe that it is right when you believe in a cause that you should push others to be clear on their attitude to it. That Russia agreed to a G8 statement calling for further measures including precisely the targeted sanctions we were advocating but then  - the same week - chose to vote against that resolution is now for them to explain.

The terms of the draft UN resolution were widely discussed within the Council. Sufficient opportunity was given to explain reservations and to table amendments. Russia chose not to engage in that debate. China's decision to veto was deeply disappointing too. We will continue to work with both states to persuade them to take a different course and to use their influence both in Zimbabwe and in the wider region to resolve the crisis.

The draft resolution did not cut across negotiations that the African Union had advocated in its own conclusions at its Summit in Sharm el Sheik. We believe that dialogue between the parties can provide a way forward for Zimbabwe's crisis.

But we need to be clear about the basis on which dialogue can be developed.  At present we have one party that won a popular mandate in the Parliamentary elections of 29 March but whose members and supporters have been intimidated by the violence unleashed on them by the state and ZANU-PF militia. 

And we have another party that have refused to cede power, and that has used the full force of the state security apparatus to intimidate its citizens and turn the Presidential run-off into a farce. 

To turn this context into one in which credible negotiations might begin, pressure is needed and the threat of an alternative approach that demonstrates what is at stake, personally, for the very people who believe they have least to gain from engaging in a process leading to democratic reform.

That is why we will continue to advocate further targeted sanctions that focus on not just the 14 who would have been affected by the draft UN resolution but those around them and those who depend on them.

The UN itself estimates that 5 million people will need food aid in Zimbabwe by the end of 2008 if conditions do not improve. Given the humanitarian situation on the ground, the incalculable hyper-inflation and the increasing violence, the end of 2008 may bring a greater catastrophe still - for both Zimbabwe and the region - if the international community does not act to prevent it.

At the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council on 22 July we will press for EU Foreign Ministers to agree to extend the number of persons on the EU visa ban and asset freeze list, for the first time to target companies and entities owned by such persons, and to tighten further the exemptions which allow Zimbabweans on that list to travel to the EU.

This first wave of targeted measures will aim to act as a stimulus on the regime to engage in meaningful dialogue with the opposition. The regime and some of it sympathisers try to portray the "talks about talks" that have occurred in South Africa last week as a breakthrough.

We will not regard those talks as a breakthrough until they lead not just to agreements on paper but implemented changes on the ground, and in particular a transitional government that reflects the will of the people as they voted on 29 March.

Meanwhile we shall work with like-minded partners to root out the sources of the regime elite's foreign currency and target their personal wealth. With our partners we shall work with banks and financial institutions  to underline the unacceptability of harbouring the cash of those who are directing or profiting from Zimbabwe's meltdown.

The opposition MDC and their leader Morgan Tsvangirai have been clear that basic preconditions must be met before any real negotiation can begin. Their demands are reasonable: the cessation of violence; the release of political prisoners;  and the unfettered access of NGOs to the people who need them most and who the regime has long since forgotten its responsibilities for.

The onus now is on the region - the Southern Africa Development Community - and the African Union to demonstrate that they are serious about making dialogue work. We will also continue to advocate the appointment of a UN envoy to support President Mbeki's efforts to negotiate, and to investigate and report on human rights abuses on the ground.

For the first time in the election on 27 June, we saw all three major African election observer groups underline their public dissatisfaction with the vote and the outcome. It is now for Africa and its leaders to show that it will not accept the 27 June result as the basis for any future settlement and that its commitment to democracy and to reform is real. We will support them in that goal.

But calls for space and for time for negotiation to work can only be taken seriously when the conditions on the ground are conducive to meaningful dialogue. The current violence makes that impossible. Newly elected MDC MPs today are in hiding in Harare and elsewhere and are afraid to take up their roles. They are right to be afraid, and Africa and its leaders have a responsibility to respond to their concerns and to their constituents' concerns and remove the causes of that fear.

Robert Mugabe described his election campaign as a war. Morgan Tsvangirai was clear that the people of Zimbabwe did not want to join Mugabe's war. Zimbabwe's independence has been won long ago. No-one is challenging its sovereignty or its right to be a nation.

Our concern is that its people should have the right to choose who leads it and how it is governed, and that their choice be respected. Our twin track approach of applying pressure on the regime elite via targeted sanctions and keeping the ordinary people of Zimbabwe alive through our contribution as the second largest bilateral donor of aid will continue.

We will continue to meet our responsibilities on both, and we will press others to join us in that approach. The price of not doing so - in terms of the dead and the dying in Zimbabwe - means we have no option but to continue.

Statement issued by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office July 15 2008