Wellington - The New Zealand government will encourage the national cricket team, the Black Caps, against making its scheduled tour of Zimbabwe next year, but past experience shows that it depends on the International Cricket Council, Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday.

"Obviously we would prefer that the Blacks Caps not play in Zimbabwe," she told her weekly press conference, condemning Robert Mugabe's claim of a landslide victory in the weekend's presidential election as "a farce with tragic consequences."

But she added: "What we found in the past was that the ICC did not consider circumstances in Zimbabwe sufficient for it to agree to cancellation of the tour."

Clark said it had been very difficult to get support apart from Britain and Australia for abandoning a tour and it remained to be seen whether the "ground has changed" sufficiently after the violence of the election to change the ICC's mind.

"That will have to be explored," she said.

Zimbabwe is a major issue at the ICC's annual conference currently being held in Dubai after England called off the African nation's planned tour of Britain last week under instructions from the British Government.

Cricket South Africa also suspended all bilateral programmes with its neighbour.

Commenting on next year's scheduled tour, Justin Vaughan, chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, told the Sunday Star Times this week, "As an ICC member, New Zealand really has no discretion on the matter - we're not allowed to pick and choose which touring obligations we meet.

"In fact, if we were to pull out of a tour for reasons other than security or safety, we'd be hit with colossal fines, and would be liable for all losses suffered by the host board as a result. When you consider the value of television rights these days, there's a potential for astronomical penalties.

"As far as I know, no national cricket board has refused to tour another country without there first being government intervention," he said. (dpa)