Own Correspondent 

JOHANNESBURG – Zimbabwe’s embattled President Robert Mugabe yesterday scored a major diplomatic coup after Portugal said it was inviting all African Union leaders to a summit of European and African countries in December. 

Mugabe’s presence at the summit has been a major talking point in the build-up to the meeting in Portugal, with former colonial master Britain and other European Union countries threatening to boycott the summit if the Zimbabwean leader was invited. 

Mugabe’s colleagues in the African Union, who view the Zimbabwean president as an independence hero, had also threatened to miss the summit if he was not allowed to attend. 

"Invitations will be sent to all leaders of the African Union," Pedro Courela, an assistant to Portugal's secretary of state for foreign affairs, was quoted as having told Reuters news agency. 

Courela said Portugal was currently working with the AU on how the invitations would be sent out. 

EU president Portugal is planning to host the first summit of EU and African leaders in seven years in December but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said neither he nor any senior member of the British government will attend alongside Mugabe. 

Critics accuse Mugabe of rigging elections, human rights abuses and presiding over the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy, now marked by the world's highest inflation rate of about 8 000 percent and joblessness of about 80 percent. 

Mugabe, 83 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies the allegations and claims he is being punished for seizing white-owned farms for blacks, blaming Western pressure for hyperinflation and hunger. 

The Zimbabwean leader and more than 100 of his lieutenants are currently subject to a EU travel ban slapped in 2002 for their role in human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. - ZimOnline