The United Nations chief torture investigator was deported from Zimbabwe early today, after being detained by security officials on Wednesday night as he arrived at the invitation of the country`s government.

Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, was held for several hours at Harare airport before being put on a plane and returned to Johannesburg.

`We are boarding the plane to Johannesburg now,` a U.N official said by mobile phone from Harare airport.

Mr Nowak had been due to spend a week in the country to investigate allegations of human rights abuses. He had been invited formally by Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minister, in February.

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However when he arrived at Harare he was told he did not have security clearance and would have to catch the next aircraft out.

I have never been treated in any other country in this way, he told The Times as he argued with immigration officials late last night. This is a major diplomatic incident.

Human rights agencies in Harare began to grow suspicious on Friday when they discovered that the Justice Ministry had drawn up no programme for Mr Nowak.

He was leaving his department`s headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday when a call came from an official at the Zimbabwean Embassy, informing him that the trip had been postponed because it was clashing with a visit by three southern African foreign ministers.

Mr Nowak rejected the excuse as no way to treat the UN and asked Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of the unity Government, to intercede.

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement of Democratic Change which had long been in opposition to President Mugabe`s Zanu (PF) party, responded by inviting Mr Nowak to a meeting at his Harare office today. He assured him that all the necessary arrangements had been made.

Zimbabwe`s Foreign Minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, was at the airport to greet the foreign ministers of Mozambique, Zambia and Angola, who flew in from Johannesburg with Mr Nowak, and escorted the others to the VIP lounge.

The immigration officers took no notice of Mr Tsvangirai`s letter. A call to the Foreign Ministry protocol officer detailed to welcome Mr Nowak elicited the response that he couldn`t find me so he went home, said Mr Nowak.

The large local UN office, with a les than-robust reputation for dealing with Mr Mugabe`s heavy-handed rule, sent only a junior security officer who was dismissed by the immigration officers. Mr Tsvangirai`s office dispatched a senior official after being alerted to the incident by journalists more than an hour after Mr Nowak`s arrival.

Mr Nowak`s ill-fated visit comes as the coalition government appears to be crumbling, after Mr Tsvangirai announced two weeks ago that he was disengaging from Mr Mugabe`s ministers, whom he described as dishonest and unreliable .

The response has been a sudden return by Mr Mugabe`s security agencies to their long-established pattern of violent repression.