Harare - What is left of Zimbabwe's beleaguered white farming community is reeling from a wave of new farm invasions by supporters of President Robert Mugabe, in contempt of the just-inaugurated coalition government.

More than 150 white farmers are facing often violent, illegal eviction attempts despite the country being in desperate need of crops to feed around 7 million people that are critically short on food.

While some are being ordered to vacate their farms, farmers are ironically being asked to donate to Mugabe's slap-up annual birthday party.

"They (officials from Mugabe's Zanu-PF) have the audacity to ask them (farmers) for donations to the party tomorrow," said Hendrik Olivier, director of the predominantly-white Commercial Farmers' Union.

Zanu-PF has raised 250,000 dollars towards Mugabe's 85th birthday, all funded by donations.

Critics have lambasted the party in the northern town of Chinhoyi, which Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said he will attend in the interest of unity despite Zimbabwe seeking 2 billion dollars in aid.

The renewed offensive on white farmers began days before the swearing-in of Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister on February 11.

The threatened seizures violate the power-sharing agreement between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which calls for respect for the rule of law and says farmers should be encouraged to produce food.

"It's definitely a final assault," said CFU president Trevor Gifford. "There are so many cases, it's unreal. This is a planned agenda."

Gifford said 150 million dollars in crops were in jeopardy as politicians and civil servants order farmers to hand over their farms. Those who resist face arrest, harassment and the threat of violence.

Of the around 4,000 white farmers that were on the land in 2000, only about 400 have managed to keep their farms since Mugabe gave the nod for white-owned land to be expropriated in 2000.

Mugabe's critics see the renewal of the campaign as an attempt by his party to show it still has a firm rein on power, despite agreeing to go into government with the MDC.

On Wednesday, Tsvangirai ordered police to "bring the full weight of the law down on the perpetrators. The MDC and Zanu-PF are co-ministering the home affairs ministry that controls the police.

Gifford said Friday: "There is nothing," in terms of compliance.

One white farmer, Mike Campbell, was ordered by a relative of a senior Zanu-PF member to get off his farm "in 10 minutes" on Wednesday. The threatened seizure had not yet been carried out but Campbell had left to avoid attack.

Campbell, 76, his wife, Angela, and son-in-law Ben Freeth were brutally attacked last year after they appealed against their threatened eviction to a Southern African tribunal in Namibia.

The tribunal found in favour of Campbell and 78 other farmers threatened with expropriation but Mugabe's government ignored the judgement, despite being a signatory to the treaty that founded the court. (dpa)