Blair criticises Zimbabwe deal

An angry Tony Blair today declared that the future of the Commonwealth is on the line after its leaders fudged a decision on suspending Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

The Prime Minister hit out after the organisation backed away from taking immediate action against Mugabe's regime despite the African leader's use of intimidation and violence in the run-up to this week's elections.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting left open the the threat of suspension after polling and placed the final decision in the hands of a three-man panel, two of whom are African leaders who have already said they are opposed to immediate action.

The panel - Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Nigeria's General Olusegun Obasanjo and South African president Thabo Mbeki - have been empowered to act after receiving a report into the elections by a 60-strong team of Commonwealth observers.

Mr Blair today said it was virtually impossible the observers would not find evidence of "detestable" intimidation by Mugabe's thugs.

Given such a report and a rigged victory by Mugabe, it would be a "failure of credibility" of the Commonwealth if it did not act, the Prime Minister said.

He left it in no doubt that he and his allies had been stitched up by a small group of African nations taking Zimbabwe's side. He described a mealy-mouthed statement put out in the name of the 51 leaders as the "lowest common denominator".

It failed to mention Mugabe or his ruling Zanu PF party and merely called on "all parties" to cease violence. The Zimbabwean opposition party, MDC, claimed it had been "betrayed" by the Commonwealth.

Mr Blair made clear his anger that Zimbabwe had not been immediately suspended but welcomed the mechanism for future action.

His aides privately admitted that today's compromise was about the best Britain could have hoped for, given one-and-a-half days of intense wrangling over the issue at the conference.

The row has developed into Britain's bitterest diplomatic spat with an African country for years, with Mugabe telling Mr Blair and other UK politicians to "keep their pink noses" out of his affairs.

Mr Blair said today: "We should have provided a far stronger statement and backed it up with action. But at least there is the possibility now of really tough action being taken by the Commonwealth.

"We have postponed the day of judgment on Zimbabwe. If as is virtually inevitable, there are details of the violence and intimidation that have been going on, sponsored by Mugabe's people, then we have got to act and it will be a failure of credibility if we don't. There's no point in using diplomatic language. The statement is in effect the lowest common denominator."

However, Mr Obasanjo said: "Anybody who believes that Zimbabwe should be suspended before the elections is not a fair man."

The Nigerian leader refused to be drawn over a pledge he reportedly made that he would provide Mugabe with a haven should he lose the election and have to flee Zimbabwe.

It's goodbye to g'day at summit