Zimbabwe's economic woes have improved in recent months, but many in Zimbabwe remain poor [EPA]

The comments on Sunday came after a two-day visit to Zimbabwe by EU officials - their first meeting in seven years with Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, viewed largely as a pariah in the West.

The EU, the largest overall aid donor to Zimbabwe, has maintained sanctions against Zimbabwe since a disputed 2002 presidential poll.

"Now we're entering a new phase," said Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden's international development minister.

"The political agreement was an important step forward, but much needs to be done. The key to re-engagement is the full implementation of the political agreement."

But she said that the EU's targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe would not be lifted until human rights abuses ended.

Targeted sanctions

Mugabe has frequently blamed his country's problems on EU sanctions that include travel restrictions and the freezing of assets belonging to himself and his allies.

"Sanctions are serving no humanitarian purpose, they are causing lots of suffering among the people right at the bottom," he said following his meeting with the EU delegation.

Ayesha Kajee, the programme director for the International Human Rights Exchange, said that the removal of sanctions would have little effect on Zimbabweans.
 
"I believe that lifting sanctions won't have any significant impact on the man in the street because the sanctions currently in place are ... targeted at high-level government ministers and people within the government," she said from Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa.
 
"However, it has been a convenient scapegoat for Mr Mugabe and his government to lambast the West and the European Union."

The EU delegation, led by Carlsson and Karel de Gucht, the EU aid commissioner, said earlier that they had not discussed sanctions with Mugabe, but the issue had been raised in separate talks with Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister.

The EU has backed Tsvangirai, whose appointment as prime minister under a South African-mediated power sharing agreement was supposed to bring an end to Zimbabwe's political turmoil.

Improving conditions

A year after the unity accord was signed, things have improved in Zimbabwe, but power struggles over government posts and claims of the continued persecution of Tsvangirai's supporters have made Western states reluctant to provide direct aid to the country.

Mugabe said that he had established a "good rapport" with the EU officials and that "it was quite a friendly meeting".

Just one day earlier he had lashed out at "bloody whites" for meddling in Zimbabwe's affairs, but later said his problem was with Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, and not the West at large.

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