Mugabe feasts on three-course gourmet lunch - and then blames Britain for starving Zimbabweans

The 84-year-old enjoyed the sort of meal Zimbabweans can only dream off as shortages have ravaged supermarkets and left shelves bare.

He defended his policy of seizing land from white farmers that has brought his country to the brink of economic collapse, saying he had undone a legacy left by Zimbabwe's former ''colonial masters.''

Travel ban: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, right, prepares to speak at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome

Earlier he enjoyed a lunch of prawn and pumpkin pate followed by veal cutlets then fruit salad with vanilla ice cream along with other leaders at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation HQ in Rome.

Mugabe - whose bodyguards were involved in ugly scuffles with reporters outside his five-star hotel in Rome - spoke for 15 minutes.

British delegates led by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander snubbed Mugabe's address.

Zimbabwe, once known as the ''bread basket of Africa," is now ravaged by 165,000 per cent inflation and 80 per cent unemployment, while 3.5 million people have fled the country as a result of his policies.

Mugabe boasted that 300,000 families were now landowners and said: ''Previously this land was owned by a mere 4,000 farmers mainly of British stock.

''While this land reform programme has been warmly welcomed by the vast majority of our people it has however elicited wrath from our former colonial masters.

''In retaliation for measures we took to empower the black majority the United Kingdom has mobilised her friends and allies to impose illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe.''

He added: ''All this has been done to cripple Zimbabwe's economy and thereby effect illegal regime change in our country.''

Controversial: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attends a U.N. crisis summit on rising food prices at the Food and Agriculture Organisation

Mugabe claimed the West was funding opposition political parties and using food as a ''political weapon.''

Sanctions are in fact restricted to a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe and his acolytes.

His speech received a lukewarm reception with only African delegates applauding him and shaking his hand afterwards.

The summit was called to tackle soaring foor prices which have hit a 30-year high in real terms for some goods and sparked rioting in the developing world.

UN secretary general  Ban Ki-Moon called for a 50% rise in world food production by 2030 and added that rich nations' food subsidies distorted the market for producers in poor countries.

FAO chief Jacques Diouf said more than 850 million people did not have enough to eat and 1 billion were heading towards starvation if the situation did not ease.

He said the world spent $1200 billion a year on arms when $30 billion would feed the starving for a year.

And he attacked obesity, excess and waste, saying: ''The excess consumption by the world's obese costs $20 billion annually, to which must be added indirect costs of $100 billion resulting from premature death and related diseases.''

Mr Diouf added: ''The important thing to realise is that it is no longer the time for words but for action.''

But the meeting was overshadowed by the presence of Mugabe, staying with his wife Grace in a £750-a-night suite at the Hotel Ambascatori.

Before the summit started his bodyguards were involved in ugly scenes as they manhandled TV crews and reporters waiting outside the hotel.

Iran's controversial president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was embroiled in a vitriolic row with Israel after using the summit to  predict the Jewish state will cease to exist.

In response Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a closed door meeting of Israeli lawmakers in Jerusalem that the international community must take decisive action on Iran and reiterated that military action was an option.

On Monday, Ahmadinejad said in Tehran that the "satanic power" of the United States faced destruction and that the Jewish state would soon disappear from the map, a theme he returned to yesterday.

"This will happen whether we are involved in it or not," he told a news conference  in Rome, adding that Israel was "doomed to go".

Outside by the Circus Maximus conference centre police kept an eye on a group of 50 demonstrators from Rome's Jewish community who denounced his remarks and visit.