UK hopeful on Zimbabwe sanctions

There were angry recriminations after Russia and China used their vetoes in the Security Council to block a sanctions resolution tabled by Britain and the United States.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband rejected claims that Britain's diplomacy had been "ill-judged" and accused Moscow and Beijing of sending mixed signals about their intentions.

However, his deputy, Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown, admitted it had been a "high-stakes gamble" to go to a vote, amid fears that defeat will have strengthened Mr Mugabe's determination to hang on to power.

The sanctions, including an arms embargo and individual measures against Mr Mugabe and 13 other leading regime figures, were intended to put pressure on Mr Mugabe following the brutal suppression of the opposition in last month's disputed run-off in the presidential election.

No 10 said that it had not ruled out a fresh attempt at a Security Council resolution if efforts at mediation between Mr Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change failed to make progress.

"It is disappointing that the Security Council failed to stand up for the democratic rights of Zimbabweans. But it was right to push for a tough Security Council resolution, and those who stood in its way must now take responsibility for the failure of the Security Council to act," a spokesman said. "We will continue to stand firmly for human rights and democracy, and will return to the Security Council in the absence of early progress on mediation, humanitarian access, and an end to violence."

Earlier, Mr Miliband dismissed claims that it had been a mistake to go to vote. "I don't accept that it was ill-judged," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. "It is right that in the end people have to show their cards and the vote yesterday showed that, in the end, the Russians and the Chinese - I wouldn't quite say put two fingers up - but effectively they blocked action. The Russians and the Chinese were briefing in all sorts of directions. You have to get people to front up because in the end there was hiding going on behind the nods and the winks."

However, Lord Malloch-Brown said that it had been apparent that the Russian position was changing: "It was a high stakes gamble which earlier in the week looked promising because the Russian president had made commitments at the G8 to go along with financial sanctions," he told Channel 4 News. "During the week it became clear that Russians were having a change of mind."

It appeared that British and US diplomats were hoping that Russia and China would abstain rather than use their vetoes as permanent members of the Security Council to block the resolution altogether.