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TOYAKO, Japan: Group of Eight leaders on Tuesday rejected the legitimacy of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government and promised "further steps" against the regime over its disputed election.
The strong statement by leaders including US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown came as Zimbabwe's opposition accused militias loyal to Mugabe of stepping up attacks on its supporters.
G8 leaders wrangled intensely over how to send Mugabe a strong message, resulting in Russia succumbing to pressure from France, Germany, Britain and the United States to agree to imposing targeted measures on regime members.
"We do not accept the legitimacy of any government that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people," the G8 leaders said in a joint statement issued at their summit on Japan's northern Hokkaido island.
"We will take further steps, inter alia introducing financial and other measures against those individuals responsible for the violence," they added.
Zimbabwe's government quickly hit back with a strongly worded statement of its own, accusing G8 leaders of being "racist".
"They want to undermine the African Union and (South African) President Mbeki's (mediation) efforts because they are racist, because they think only white people think better," said Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga.
"It's an insult to African leaders," Matonga told AFP.
Mugabe, who has been in power 28 years, was re-elected to a sixth term in a one-man run-off poll on June 27 that was widely denounced as a sham and marred by the use of violence.
"We expressed our grave concern about the situation in Zimbabwe," the G8 leaders said, adding they deplored the election going ahead "despite the absence of appropriate conditions for free and fair voting as a result of their systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation."
Main Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who won the first round of the poll but fell short of a majority, pulled out of the contest citing a campaign of violence and intimidation.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday that France was ready to back a US-led UN Security Council resolution to slap sanctions on Zimbabwe and German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also clear she wanted to see such measures.
But a senior Russian official said on Tuesday that Russia was opposed to new sanctions on Zimbabwe.
However a source close to Sarkozy said there had been a "real evolution" in Russia's position during the day that resulted in Moscow accepting "financial measures," although the leaders avoided the use of the word "sanctions" in their statement.
Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade urged G8 leaders not to slap sanctions on Zimbabwe saying they "wouldn't be useful and that they wouldn't change the regime," he told AFP.
He said he received full support of African leaders, who included Mbeki, when they met with the G8 on Monday.
"I understand that Westerners have to react to public opinion, which is shocked by images of massacres. They can't not react. But for us Africans, sanctions aren't going to resolve anything," he said.
The G8 leaders also recommended the appointment of a special envoy to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report on the situation in Zimbabwe and support the mediation efforts by the Southern African Development Council and the African Union.
"We are deeply concerned by the humanitarian dimension of the situation in Zimbabwe," the G8 leaders said, urging Mugabe's government to "work with the opposition to achieve a prompt, peaceful resolution to the crisis." - AFP/de
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