The England Cricket Board faced a one-year-suspension from international cricket and a two-million-pound fine under new ICC rules introduced in March if they cited moral obligations and refused to travel.

The ECB do not want to tour but need specific government advice not to go to avoid the stiff ICC sanctions.

But Foreign secretary Jack Straw said the government did not like the idea of the tour but did not believe the English game should be bankrupted by International Cricket Council penalties if it was called off.

In a reply to his Conservative counterpart Michael Ancram, Straw wrote: "We fully understand the very difficult decision the ECB has to take, particularly in the light of the ICC's meeting in Auckland in March.

"This meeting appears to have given the ECB a choice between a tour which is difficult to defend on moral grounds and financial penalties which might bankrupt the game.

"I do not like the idea of an England team touring Zimbabwe any more than you do, but I do not believe that the future of English cricket should be put in jeopardy as a result of the failure of others to acknowledge the appalling situation there."

Ancram had suggested a new government statement might allow the ECB to claim to the ICC they were being pressured into pulling out.

But Straw said the government had no powers to ban any other sporting organisation from touring Zimbabwe or any other country.

He added in the letter: "There is no evidence that any ministerial statement would be sufficient for the International Cricket Council to allow the ECB to postpone the tour.

"In those circumstances, I do not believe it would be right that the British taxpayer should have to carry the financial liability which could flow from cancellation of the tour."

The letter effectively ends any uncertainty about whether the tour will take place and ECB chairman David Morgan insisted Friday that England have no choice but to tour.

Morgan said: "We have to look at what's happening to international cricket at the moment. Sri Lanka are in Zimbabwe and Australia are planning to go. Why shouldn't England go?

"Against that background, the board members and directors of the ECB we believe that, provided it is safe and secure, this tour has to go ahead.

"I do not believe England touring or not touring will make any difference to the situation in Zimbabwe."