Zimbabwean police have released opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after he was detained while on the campaign trail for the country's run-off presidential election, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said.
News of his release comes as United Nations officials today warned that the suffering of the Zimbabwean people would increase if the government persisted in its ban on work by independent international aid groups.
Mr Tsvangirai was detained for about two hours at a police station in Esigodini, 40km (25 miles) southeast of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city.
"The (MDC) president has just been released but instructed to go back to Bulawayo, instead of proceeding with the campaign. The police say the instruction came from the top," an MDC spokesman said.
President Robert Mugabe's government yesterday suspended all work by non-governmental organisations. It accuses some of them of campaigning for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of a June 27th presidential election run-off.
A spokesman for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, said the move by the Harare authorities was an "unconscionable act".
The UN agency for child protection Unicef said any action preventing Zimbabwean children receiving "the aid that is planned and paid for" was a violation of child rights and international treaties.
Mr Mugabe earlier week told an international food summit in Rome that Zimbabwe's problems were due to US and British "neo-colonialism".
Earlier today, Zimbabwean police blocked Mr Tsvangirai from reaching a rally outside Bulawayo after police put up a roadblock. His party accuses President Robert Mugabe of trying to sabotage his campaign.
"The police set up a roadblock on the way to How Mine, where Mr Tsvangirai was heading as part of his campaign tour in Matabeleland," a witness said.
Mr Tsvangirai's party said earlier today that harassment of diplomats and aid groups showed Mr Mugabe's government would fail to respect the rule of law during the June 27th presidential election run-off.
The accusation by Tendai Biti, secretary general of the MDC, came a day after police detained US and British diplomats outside Harare and relief agencies were barred from doing work in the country.
"It is almost as if the regime is sending out a message to the region, to the international community that it doesn't care, that it has no respect for life, it has no respect for the rule of law," Mr Biti said in a presentation at the World Economic Forum for Africa in Cape Town. "The regime is increasing the decibels of insanity."
Mr Tsvangirai beat Mr Mugabe in a March 29th election but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a second ballot.
The opposition leader was held and questioned by police for eight hours earlier this week while campaigning.