TONY BLAIR came face to face yesterday with one of his handpicked new breed of African leaders — and promptly turned his back.

To both men’s evident distaste, Mr Blair found himself seated next to Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, at the final press conference of a weekend summit of “progressive” world leaders.

Britain suspended £70 million of direct budget support to Ethiopia two weeks ago in protest at the Ethiopian Government’s crackdown on protesters angered by the results of general elections last May. Scores of unarmed demonstrators, mainly students, were shot dead in June and November in the capital, Addis Ababa. Thousands of political opponents, including children, have been detained without charges being brought against them.

The events were deeply embarrassing to Mr Blair, who had named the Ethiopian leader as one of the key members of his Commission for Africa. Last year, Mr Blair toured Ethiopia and heaped praise on Mr Meles’s democratic and economic policies. Then, he spoke enthusiastically of a new breed of African leader, worthy of much greater foreign support; an issue he personally championed at the G8 summit in Gleneagles last summer.

Now, with a stony-faced Mr Meles alongside, Mr Blair, on his first visit to Africa since the G8, used very different language. He told reporters that although the elections had been the freest in Ethiopia’s history, the Government had “overreacted” to the ensuing protests. He dodged questions, however, as to Mr Meles’s suitability to attend a “progressive governance” summit along with leaders from Brazil, South Africa, Sweden, South Korea and New Zealand.

“This is not a question of a government stealing an election to try to hang on to power, it is the government reaction to the reaction to the result that we consider — if I may be undiplomatic — to be an overreaction,” he said. Mr Blair said that the decision to freeze aid would not affect British support to Ethiopia’s millions of near-destitute people through non-governmental groups and UN agencies. Ethiopia maintains much of the money will now be wasted on those organisations’ own bureaucracies.

Mr Meles, who now barely talks to his former mentor, replied that the British Government was entitled to do what it wanted with its “own and British taxpayers’ money”. On previous occasions, Mr Meles has lambasted the British Government for withdrawing budgetary support previously agreed.

Behind the icy diplomatic exchange, however, the body language told a different story. Whereas the other leaders’ chairs were placed in such a way that they almost rubbed shoulders, a large gap opened up behind the place names of the UK and Ethiopia.

The leaders agreed on the need to solve world trade disputes, but were unable to find the best way forward, settling for a statement agreeing on the importance of such talks for developing nations.

Afterwards, Mr Blair warmly shook the hands of Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Göran Persson from Sweden, hugged Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and kissed Helen Clark from New Zealand.

All contact with Mr Meles, though, was avoided.

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