Human rights groups Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada have acknowledged that the agreement reached by the Kimberley Process (KP) diamond certification scheme on the sale of Zimbabwe diamonds could pave the way for reinforced oversight of their diamond production, while allowing for limited exports.

According to a statement posted on the Global Witness website, the groups believe that the agreement, if fully implemented, "Would help end abuses in the country's Marange diamond fields." The agreement was devised in the World Diamond Congress in Moscow, over the weekend.

Nadim Kara of Partnership Africa Canada, said: "This agreement is far from perfect, and it will take considerable efforts by all parties to the Kimberley Process, especially Zimbabwe, to make it work.

"The crisis in Zimbabwe's diamond sector should act as a wake-up call to governments and the diamond industry: this issue is too important, both to consumers and to diamond mining communities, to keep lurching from crisis to crisis. The system needs urgent and far-reaching reform at a time when consumers are demanding action on blood diamonds."

Annie Dunnebacke of Global Witness added: "It is too early to give a final verdict. Ultimately the success or otherwise of this agreement will be determined by what the main players do next. The ball is now in Zimbabwe's court to make good on its promises and act to end one of the most egregious cases of diamond-related violence for many years.

"We fervently hope that the governments in the Kimberley Process will, for their part, hold Zimbabwe to its commitments in order to begin to restore the battered integrity of the scheme."