Tory chief urges Blair to snub Mugabe

Iain Duncan Smith has challenged Tony Blair to boycott an address by Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, during the Earth summit in Johannesburg.

The Tory leader said the summit's provisional agenda revealed that Mr Blair was due to speak one hour before Mr Mugabe. He said: "You could not possibly share a platform with someone who seeks to humiliate our country and place British citizens in Johannesburg."

Mr Duncan Smith also urged Mr Blair to use the summit on sustainable development to denounce Mr Mugabe's controversial programme of land redistribution.

"The issue of sustainable development cannot be tackled whilst one of its delegates is systematically starving his own people, driving efficient farmers off highly productive land and forcing farm workers to live in squatter camps by the side of roads," the Tory leader said in a letter to Downing Street

He also called for Mr Blair to warn that Britain's support for African nations "could depend on their actions to restore good governance in Zimbabwe".

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "I don't know whether Mr Mugabe will be at the summit. It is possible he may be and I don't discount that they may sit in the same room at the same time. There are no plans for them to meet."