High Commissioner Adam Wood was speaking in a KTN interview after President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election at December 27 polls triggered riots and ethnic attacks killing at least 1,000 people and uprooting 300,000 more.

Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said Wood's comments showed "total disregard" for diplomatic etiquette, and he threatened to take unspecified action if the incident was repeated.

"The high commissioner is still hell bent to wreck the boat," Wetangula said in a statement.

"While we have acted with restraint, continued provocation will not be tolerated further and the government will not hesitate to take appropriate remedial measures."

A spokeswoman at the British High Commission in Nairobi said Wood was only reiterating the British government's position.

In the interview late on Wednesday, the UK ambassador cited irregularities in the presidential polls that were documented by local and foreign election monitors.

"In view of these irregularities, we do not find that the government that is presently constituted represents the democratic will of the Kenyan people," Wood said.

Kenya won independence from Britain in 1963. Relations have often been prickly since then, and the current crisis has prompted government officials to sharply criticise Western envoys they accuse of acting like "colonial governors".

Last week, Washington said it had warned eight Kenyans they could be barred from entering the United States on suspicion of stoking the violence since the election.