Portugal is prepared to invite President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to a summit of European and African leaders in Lisbon this year despite an EU travel ban and sanctions against the 83-year-old dictator and figures in his regime.
Senior officials in Portugal, which took over the six-month presidency of the EU on Sunday, said they were not keen to welcome Mugabe to the December summit, but would do so if that was the price of salvaging a meeting they see as their policy priority while in charge of the EU.
"This is a summit for all African countries at the highest level, heads of government or heads of state. All African countries must be invited," a senior Portuguese official said.
Another senior official said the government could try to defuse the issue by having the African Union, rather than Portugal or the EU, invite Mugabe to Europe for the meeting on Dec. 8 and 9.
Britain, the leading voice in the EU supporting five years of sanctions against Mugabe, and a travel ban on his entourage, is fiercely opposed to having Mugabe at a European summit.
Officials in Brussels say most EU members, including the Portuguese, do not want Mugabe in Lisbon, but that the African Union of 53 countries, chaired by Ghana, is demanding that Zimbabwe be treated the same as everyone else.
The last EU-Africa summit took place in 2000. Plans for a similar meeting in 2003 collapsed because of the Mugabe dispute.
"We defined a summit with Africa as a priority for our [EU] presidency. We want to leave our mark on European foreign policy," said Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
Socrates has strong support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who recently accused Mugabe of "unspeakable acts" but said the summit should go ahead whether or not the Zimbabwean leader attends.
Government officials in Lisbon said they have not yet invited Mugabe.
"There are other creative options," said a third senior official, amid intensifying diplomacy.
Since he stood down as prime minister, Tony Blair has intervened with South African President Thabo Mbeki on the issue, European officials said. Mbeki is trying to mediate a settlement of the Zimbabwe crisis.
The officials said that Socrates and Jose Manuel Barroso, the Portuguese head of the European commission, are expected to fly to Ghana to talk to leaders at an African Union summit which opened on Sunday. Mugabe is attending that summit.
Preparations for the Lisbon gathering of more than 80 African and European leaders are advanced, indicating that Portugal has accepted the AU's terms for treating Zimbabwe and Mugabe like everyone else.
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