EU:Plans to host the first EU-Africa summit for several years are in doubt due to growing opposition to the possible attendance of Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe.
Sweden and Finland called yesterday for Mr Mugabe to be barred from the summit planned for December 8th-9th in Lisbon. However, both states stopped short of saying they would boycott the event. "We are asking the [ EU] Portuguese presidency to tell him that he should not be here and he should certainly not be given a central role," Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said at the EU summit in Lisbon.
Asked if he would consider boycotting the summit, Mr Reinfeldt said the EU should take a collective decision on the matter.
The growing unease about the summit being planned by Portugal, the current holder of the six-month presidency of the EU, follows British prime minister Gordon Brown's decision not to attend the summit if Mr Mugabe is allowed to attend.
"We cannot sit down at the same table as President Mugabe . . . who has so ruthlessly destroyed human rights in his country," Mr Brown said.