Archbishop Rowan Williams will arrive on October 9, according to a spokesman for Chad Gandiya, the bishop of Harare, during a trip to the continent which also takes in Malawi and Zambia.

"The archbishop is showing his solidarity with Anglicans in Zimbabwe who are going through difficult times," said spokesman Precious Shumba.

He said Williams would meet with Mugabe, although officials at the archbishop's office in London said the meeting was not finalised, and would also hold a service in Greendale in Harare and another at the City Sports Centre.

Williams has long expressed concern about the persecution of Anglicans by security forces in Zimbabwe, warning in his Christmas sermon last year that they suffered harassment, beatings, arrests and lockouts from their churches.

Recently the church in Zimbabwe has also seen its property seized by the former bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, who formed a breakaway Anglican church after being excommunicated in 2007.

Last month, the Supreme Court granted Kunonga control of all Anglican church properties in the southern African nation, leaving those opposed to him holding services in the open air or in borrowed buildings.

In some cases church members and leaders have been arrested for trying to enter church buildings which Kunonga claims to control.

"The aim of the trip as a whole is a pastoral visit and it's to show solidarity with Anglicans there," said a spokeswoman for the archbishop's office at Lambeth Palace in London.

She added that recent incidents of persecution, including the reported arrest this week of prominent Harare priest Julius Zimbudzana, were "more of a reason to go because people need more pastoral care".

Lambeth Palace could not confirm the meeting with Mugabe, saying only that it had been requested.

But Shumba said: "We have secured a meeting with the president and the meeting is likely to be at State House.

"The meeting is not necessarily to intervene in the dispute between the church and Kunonga but rather a courtesy call by the archbishop on the president."

However Gandiya told The Times newspaper that he hoped the archbishop's visit would bring respite to the church in Zimbabwe, which he said was thriving despite the pressure it was under.

"I often think, where are all these people coming from. Sometimes I ask them if they know what they are committing themselves to. They are totally committed to God," the bishop said.

Although Williams' visit to Zimbabwe is not political, it is the first by any senior British figure for a decade. Ties between London and its former colony became extremely strained after Mugabe began his land reforms in 2000.

The second most senior Anglican in Britain, Archbishop of York John Sentamu, cut up his clerical dog collar in 2007 in protest against Mugabe and said he would not replace it until the Zimbabwean president was out of office.

By AFP