Early EU eyes on Berlusconi

Berlusconi with President of the Council, Spanish foreign minister Josep Pique

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi eclipsed Zimbabwe as the main talking point at the opening of the EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

Berlusconi, who has assumed the role of foreign minister as well as Prime Minister in a row about how European Italy should be, swept in with by far the largest entourage, CNN's Robin Oakley reported.

But he surprised the other European foreign ministers with an opening statement which was brief and succinct, Oakley said.

Topping the agenda at the summit are possible sanctions against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe for what are seen as repressive measures prior to March 9 elections. Other key issues are the Middle East and a possible EU police force for Bosnia.

Britain -- the ex-colonial power -- was expected to press the hardest for tough sanctions against Zimbabwe.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told CNN on his arrival in Brussels that Britain wants an agreement on sanctions in principle against Mugabe's regime.

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He believes that Zimbabwe should be given a short while to comply with EU demands for international observers to oversee elections on March 9 and the international media being allowed access.

If there is no assurance about observers the UK then wants sanctions automatically activated.

They would not be economic sanctions -- the Zimbabwean people seen as having already suffered from a collapsed economy -- they would be so-called "smart sanctions" targeting Mugabe and his government, freezing their assets in Europe and worldwide and banning them from overseas travel.

Straw indicated he wanted to give Zimbabwe one more chance though he doubted if that chance would be taken.

Straw slammed Mugabe as a ruthless leader who was "destroying his country's economy, damaging the rest of southern Africa and making wretched the lives of his people."

"The tragedy unfolding in Zimbabwe is driven by one man's ruthless campaign to hang on to power whatever the cost to others in the process," Straw told the Guardian newspaper in an interview.

On Wednesday, Commonwealth foreign ministers will gather in London for talks on Zimbabwe's suspension from the 54-nation group mainly made up of former British colonies.

Some EU nations fear sanctions could spur Mugabe to step up his crackdown

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has urged EU countries to impose "targeted sanctions" on Mugabe as Straw envisages such as travel bans, freezing of assets and sending their children back to Zimbabwe.

"Those are the three conditions we are giving the EU," he told BBC radio.

But CNN's Oakley said the view of some nations at the summit was however that Mugabe could be given an excuse to crack down further and introduce more intimidation against the media.

Meanwhile EU security chief Javier Solana and External Commissioner Chris Patten told the meeting that the EU should take over the running of the police force in Bosnia next year.

On the Middle East, Oakley said an EU mission to the area in 2001 achieved little and Israel's PM Ariel Sharon has been urging the EU to stop giving money to the Palestinian Authority, saying it would only be spent on arms.

Some EU diplomats are considering whether they should now demand recompense from Israel for the $18 million worth of EU-funded projects in the Palestinian Authority they estimate to have been destroyed by Israeli troops in retaliation raids for attacks on Israeli citizens, Oakley said.

Other subjects on the agenda are terrorism in Spain -- which currently holds the EU presidency -- EU aid to Afghanistan, relations with Russia over its Baltic port of Kaliningrad, which is cut off from the rest of Russia by Poland and Lithuania, and the Western Balkans.