The terrorism trial of Zimbabwe ministerial nominee Roy Bennett was postponed Saturday, a day after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai suspended cooperation with President Robert Mugabe's "unreliable" camp over his top aide's detention.

"It has been agreed by (all) concerned that the matter be postponed. Instead of starting Monday, it starts at a later date," Bennett's lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told reporters outside the Harare high court.

"The state wants the trial to start on the 27th but we are saying we are not yet ready as we feel it's too early given that we were given only two days notice for trial commencement instead of the minimum 10 days.

"However we want this matter to be settled," she added.

A new date for the trial is likely to be decided by the Mutare high court on Monday.

The Zimbabwe high court Friday ordered the release of Bennett, who was arrested on February on his return to Zimbabwe just an hour ahead of the swearing in of the new government.

His bail had been revoked by the Mutare magistrate's court two days earlier.

His renewed detention earlier this week spurred the biggest threat to the country's eight-month unity government after Tsvangirai Friday announced he would "disengage" from Mugabe's "unreliable" Zanu-PF party.

The action against Bennett ? Tsvangirai's pick as deputy agriculture minister ? had shown the "fiction of the credibility and integrity" of the partnership, Tsvangirai said.

State prosecutor Chris Mutangadura told reporters that they had agreed that the matter be postponed.

The case of Bennett ? a feisty white former coffee farmer whose land was expropriated under Mugabe's land reforms ? has become a symbol of the unresolved challenges facing the partnership which include claims of a crackdown against Tsvangirai's supporters and disputes over key posts.

Tsvangirai and his long-time rival agreed to the unity government nearly a year after disputed polls, which saw Mugabe handed the presidency in a one-man run-off, plunged the country into deeper economic and political crisis.