Harare - A court in Zimbabwe on Tuesday granted jailed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) politician Roy Bennett bail of 2,000 dollars but the 52-year-old white farmer will remain in jail for up to seven more days following a challenge to the ruling by the state.

Bennett, 52, was not in the High Court in Zimbabwe's capital Harare for the hearing. He is being detained in a prison in the eastern city of Mutare, where he was was denied bail by a magistrate's court earlier this month.

Granting the MDC's appeal of the lower court ruling, Judge Tedious Karwi said: "In my view I'm satisfied that, in the interest of justice, he must be granted bail."

But state prosecutors invoked a clause in the constitution which allows them seven days to appeal the ruling, during which Bennett may not be released.

Bennett's lawyers vowed to try to secure their client's speedy release by challenging the state's use of the clause to the Constitutional Court.

Bennett was arrested on February 13 at an airport outside Harare and charged with possessing weapons for the purposes of insurgency in an alleged plot dating to 2006. He was also charged with violating immigration laws. He denies both charges.

The popular Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) politician, who was thrown off his land in 2003 by allies of President Robert Mugabe, had been due to be sworn in as a deputy agriculture minister in the country's new power-sharing government.

The coalition government, of which MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai became prime minister, has since been sworn in, with the deputy agriculture position left vacant.

The MDC has accused hardliners within Mugabe's Zanu-PF of using Bennett to trying to scupper the deal.

Several reports also suggest Bennett may be caught up in the intense horse-trading between the MDC and army generals seeking immunity from prosecution for past atrocities. (dpa)