Harare  - The planned court appearance of detained Zimbabwean opposition politician Roy Bennett failed to happen Monday because of prosecution delays, his lawyer said.

Bennett, who was due to be sworn in later this week as deputy agriculture minister in the country's new unity government, had been expected to appear in court in the north-eastern city of Mutare to be formally charged with attempted terrorism.

But the prosecutor failed to arrive from Harare, where the investigating police officer had taken the docket, Bennett's lawyer said.

It was not clear whether the hearing would take place Tuesday. The magistrate granted police a request to detain him for a further 48 hours, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said.

Bennett, who turned 52 Monday, was charged on Sunday in connection with an alleged plot to topple President Robert Mugabe in 2006. Police had earlier said he was being charged with treason but the charge was later reduced.

The former farmer, whose coffee plantation was seized in 2003 during the country's lawless land reform campaign, was arrested outside Harare on Friday, minutes before the inauguration of the country's new unity government.

He had returned to Zimbabwe only last month after nearly three years in South Africa, where he fled arrest over the insurgency allegations, which were later discredited during the trial of one of his co-accused.

Bennett's arrest marred the start of the difficult union of convenience between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the MDC.

The MDC has accused hardliners within Mugabe's party of trying to scupper the interim power-sharing deal by continuing to crack down on party members and supporters.

Besides Bennett, police are holding more than 30 other MDC members and human-rights activists, mainly on charges of conspiring to topple Mugabe or of banditry. The MDC dismisses these charges as politically motivated.

"As these charges have no basis in law, and are driven by a vindictive and malicious political vendetta against Roy Bennett, we demand that they be dropped and we seriously embark on national healing," the MDC said in a statement. dpa