Zimbabwe have agreed to skip next year's World Twenty20 in England, ending a deadlock over demands that the African nation be suspended due to Robert Mugabe's government, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said after its annual meeting in Dubai.

"Zimbabwe cricket has... taken note that the British government is likely to refuse to grant visas for the Zimbabwe cricket team to take part in the ICC World Twenty20 2009," the ICC said in statement.

"Therefore, the Zimbabwe delegation has decided to recommend to its board that the team should withdraw from that event."

The Zimbabwe delegation will report back to the ICC on the final decision of their board in one month.

The ICC executive board met for a third day on Friday to resolve the deadlock over Zimbabwe, which has been simmering on and off the pitch over the past few years.

Britain, who led calls to suspend Zimbabwe from international cricket following last week's widely-criticised presidential election run-off in which Mugabe retained power unopposed, welcomed Friday's decision.

"I welcome the suspension of Zimbabwe from ICC tournaments for a year. This will allow the Twenty20 tournament in England to go ahead," Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, said in a statement.

"It also sends a powerful message to Zimbabwe that the government must change or face further isolation."

Ties severed

The England and Wales Cricket Board had already cancelled Zimbabwe's 2009 tour of England and severed all bilateral cricketing ties in June, under instructions from the government.

"We made our position very clear at the start of the discussions on Zimbabwe," Giles Clarke, ECB chairman, told BBC Radio.

"We broke off bilateral relationships with Zimbabwe and we will not be playing them in the near future under the present circumstances."

South Africa, traditional supporters of Zimbabwe, also suspended bilateral cricketing ties with its neighbour last month, but the influential Indian cricket board is opposed to the suspension of its Zimbabwean counterparts.

Zimbabwe is expected to remain one of the ICC's 10 full members, a status given to Test-playing nations.

"The Zimbabwe delegation has agreed to take this decision in the greater interest of world cricket and the ICC," the ICC statement continued.

"This recommendation should be viewed as a one-off and will not be taken as a precedent."

Zimbabwe's national team has not played test cricket since January 2006 following a series of confrontations between senior players and the administration.