Tony Blair was under mounting pressure last night to re-impose a moratorium on deporting failed asylum-seekers back to Zimbabwe.
The Government was accused of ignoring the brutal crackdown by Robert Mugabe's regime against his political opponents and putting lives at risk after it blocked demands for a halt to deportations.
Some 57 Zimbabweans in British detention centres are now on hunger strike after failing to win the right to stay in this country.
But ministers, who lifted a ban on sending such people back to Zimbabwe last November, promised to keep the issue under close review and may yet be forced into a U-turn.
The crisis in Zimbabwe threatens to overshadow Mr Blair's decision to put Africa at the top of the agenda at next week's summit of G8 leaders at Gleaneagles.
Mr Blair made clear that he opposed a policy change at this stage for fear that it would send a signal that Britain was again a soft touch for asylum-seekers.
"If we engage in a generalised moratorium, our fear is that we would literally be back in the situation we were two or three years ago where people were hammering us for not getting the asylum system under control," he said.
The Prime Minister told his monthly Downing Street press conference that he was not unsympathetic to the plight of the Zimbabweans but insisted some of the claimants for asylum had turned out not to be from the country.
"We will look into this very carefully. This country is a tolerant country. I would not want it on my conscience if people are sent back to be tortured," he said.
He urged African countries to declare as "a disgrace" the Mugabe regime's demolition and displacement programme which has cost 400,000 people of their homes and livelihoods.
"As the situation in Zimbabwe deteriorates, it damages the cause of Africa, which is deeply unfair," he said.
In the Commons, the Home Secretary Charles Clarke came under pressure from MPs of all parties to stop deportations. After he refused, the Tory Opposition changed its policy by demanding a temporary suspension.
Liam Fox, the shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "Until we have a rigorous method of monitoring the continuing safety of those returned to Zimbabwe, we believe it would be prudent to halt deportations for a short time, in view of the increasing human rights abuses perpetrated by President Mugabe's Government."
David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said the Government's policy on Zimbabwe was "a miserable failure" and said it had a duty to act because President Mugabe's repression had got worse. He warned that men and women could be sent back to a country that was patently unsafe.
Labour MP Kate Hoey, who visited Zimbabwe covertly last week, said the opposition Movement for Democratic Change wanted the deportations to stop.
She asked Mr Clarke: "What is the difference between last November, when you did have a policy of stopping, and now when Zimbabwe is going even worse with more human rights abuses and destroying livelihoods?"
The Home Secretary said: "We will keep the situation under very close review."
He promised that each case would be considered on its merits, adding: "We will not remove anyone we believe at risk on their return."
He insisted that a blanket ban could only encourage "those seeking to get round controls."
Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: "We are profoundly worried about asylum seekers being returned to Zimbabwe in the current circumstances. Zimbabwe is patently unsafe and we call on the Government to stop all removals until the situation there really has improved."
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