Robert Mugabe: green light given despite an EU travel ban

ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe will be allowed to visit Paris next week for an African leaders’ summit, European Union governments reluctantly agreed yesterday.

The go-ahead was given despite an EU travel ban on the president, his wife and more than 70 members of his political circle and their families in protest at human rights abuses by Mugabe's regime.

EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels renewed the ban for a year but with a temporary "opt-out" for France, so President Chirac can play host to Mr Mugabe at a Franco-African summit discussing human rights on February 19. Britain's disapproval of the French action was marked by a formal reservation written into the accord expressing "grave concern" a view echoed by Germany, the Netherlands and