Brown accused over Mugabe stance

The attack came from Dr Gertrude Mongella, the Tanzanian president of the Pan-African Parliament, who said "arm-twisting" was not the way to solve Zimbabwe's problems.

Her remarks reflect the determination of the African Union, which includes Zimbabwe, to go ahead as planned and invite Mr Mugabe to a major EU-Africa summit in Lisbon, Portugal, in December. Mr Brown said he will not go if the man who has presided over Zimbabwe's mounting economic, political and humanitarian troubles is at the table.

The problem is that the African Union, set up to promote co-operation between independent African countries, has warned the EU that some key political African leaders will stay away from the talks if one of its members is snubbed.

The Portuguese government, in the EU presidency and organising the event, is now walking a diplomatic tightrope in its efforts to appease Mr Brown - whose views about Mr Mugabe are widely shared across Europe - while avoiding the collapse of what is seen as a crucial event on Africa.

Hopes that Mr Mugabe could be persuaded to send a junior representative from his country were dashed by Zimbabwe's UN ambassador on Thursday night, who insisted his President would attend if invited.

Now Dr Mongella, attending a conference with Socialist Euro-MPs in Brussels, has made clear that African solidarity might undermine Mr Brown's "him or me" challenge to the summit. We do know there are some problems (in Zimbabwe), but if somebody wants to arm-twist Zimbabwe, that's not the best way to solve the problems," she said in an interview on the Socialist Group website.

"I think this is again another way of manipulating Africa. Zimbabwe is a nation which got independence. I think in the developed countries there are so many countries doing things which not all of us subscribe to - we have seen the Iraq war, not everyone accepts what is being done in Iraq."

Dr Mongella urged all government leaders to go to the summit - including Mr Brown - to join the talks to "meet, develop a very committed dialogue to solve problems, rather than threatening each other by going or not going."

Mr Brown's spokesman said that it seemed to be the general assumption that Mr Mugabe would be invited to Lisbon, and that the Prime Minister would therefore not attend. But he declined to say whether any other minister might represent Britain in his absence, sayin