A number of government and opposition parties have called on foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen to boycott the December meeting between the EU and African countries if Zimbabwean prime minister Robert Mugabe is present.

British prime minister Gordon Brown is reported to have told the UK’s Independent newspaper that he will boycott the conference if it is attended by Mugabe who is responsible for ‘the mistreatment of his own people, widespread torture and large-scale intimidation of political opponents’.
Brown is to ask other European leaders to d the same at a EU summit in October.
Verhagen is also against the presence of Mugabwe at the conference, but wants to wait and see if the EU can come up with a solution, says news service ANP. A number of African countries have threatened to boycott the meeting if Mugabwe is not invited.