Nordic countries want Mugabe barred from EU-Africa meet

By Ingrid Melander

LISBON (Reuters) - Sweden and Finland on Thursday called for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to be excluded from an EU-Africa summit in December but left open whether they would join a British boycott if he showed up.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said he had not decided whether to attend the December 8-9 summit in Lisbon if Mugabe came, adding that serious discussion on Zimbabwe and human rights was a precondition for his attendance.

Pressed by competition for scarce resources with China, the European Union wants to hold its first summit with African leaders in seven years in December, but has not yet solved the thorny issue of Mugabe's attendance.

"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 told Reuters on the margins of a meeting of EU leaders in Lisbon.

Asked if he would consider boycotting the summit, Reinfeldt said the EU should take a collective decision on the matter.

Separately, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said he would decide whether to participate only after it was decided who would represent Zimbabwe.

"I hope that Zimbabwe can be at the meeting at another level (than Mugabe)" Vanhanen told Reuters, noting arrangements for an EU-Asia summit last year where the military leadership of Myanmar was represented only by a minister.

All three countries, which pride themselves on being pro-active in pushing for respect of human rights around the world, said the EU-Africa summit was crucial and that they wanted it to take place.