The UN Human Rights Commission has given Zimbabwe a clean bill of health by deciding against an international probe into alleged acts of politically motivated violence and other abuses, Harare's state-run press said Friday.

"The United Nations has once again given Zimbabwe a clean bill on human rights," said the Herald daily.

Twenty-seven largely African and Asian member states out of the 53 commission members on Thursday rallied around a "no action" motion, warding off a debate on the southern African country's human rights record.

Last year Zimbabwe also escaped a probe over its rights record after African and Asian states in the UN human rights forum voted against scrutinising the country's human rights record.

"It's a victory for Zimbabwe and the Third World countries which have stood against abuse of the (human rights) commission by Western countries," Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the Herald.

"The Third World countries have resisted manipulation by the West. The West was intimidating African and Asian countries on the issue of Zimbabwe," Chinamasa said.

The European Union had put forward a draft resolution at the Geneva-based commission accusing Harare of violating human rights.

Debate on Zimbabwe could have culminated in an international probe into the alleged abuses.

Twenty-four countries, including European, Latin American nations and the United States, had wanted to pursue the effort, while Brazil and Mexico abstained. In 2003, only Brazil had chosen to sit on the fence.

Many countries felt the resolution was simply designed to resolve a dispute between Zimbabwe and its former colonial ruler Britain over the controversial land reforms in the southern African country rather than attempt to investigate rights violations.

Zimbabwe says it is prepared to discuss any problems that Britain had with its land reform programme in which white-owned farms were seized and redistributed to blacks.

But Mary Whelan of Ireland speaking on behalf of the EU reiterated the EU's concerns over what she said were continuing rights abuses such as politically motivated killings, torture, sexual abuse of women, arbitrary arrests, restrictions on the independence of the judiciary and restrictions on freedoms of assembly - Sapa-AFP.