No invitation for Zimbabwe in African summit

Harare, Feb 15: Zimbabwe said today it had not been invited to a France-Africa summit in Cannes this week, after refusing to meet ''certain conditions'' which some reports said were that President Robert Mugabe not attend.

The European Union imposed travel restrictions on Mugabe and his top officials five years ago over charges of human rights abuses, vote-rigging and controversial seizures of white-owned commercial farms.

Mugabe has however sometimes been able to attend United Nations-organised meetings in the EU, and in 2003 France ignored protests from some EU members and invited the veteran Zimbabwean leader to Paris for a France-Africa summit.

But in a statement today, Harare's foreign ministry said Mugabe had not been invited to this year's conference, and his government had indicated to France it would not accept any invitation with conditions attached.

There has been speculation in Zimbabwe's private press that France considered extending an invitation to Harare that excluded Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980.

''The Ministry (of Foreign Affairs) wishes to state that Zimbabwe was not invited to the summit,'' the statement said.

''However, enquiries were made as to whether the government of Zimbabwe would accept an invitation with certain conditions attached to it,'' it added.

''The government of Zimbabwe indicated that it would not accept such an invitation.'' Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu declined to comment further on the issue.

The southern African country is struggling with a deepening economic crisis characterised by fuel, food and foreign currency shortages, which many critics blame on mismanagement by Mugabe's 27-year-old government.

Mugabe, 83 this month, says the economy -- which has the world's highest inflation rate of nearly 1,600 percent -- is being sabotaged by foreign and domestic opponents trying to oust him over his nationalist policies.

Reuters