ROBERT MUGABE fuelled controversy over his invitation to the Franco-African summit in Paris yesterday when he heaped praise on President Chirac for the “tremendous hospitality” he had received.

His words appeared to discredit M Chirac’s claims to have given the Zimbabwean President a dressing-down over his human rights record at a private meeting on Thursday night. They added to speculation that M Chirac’s real aim in issuing the invitation had been to woo Zimbabwe’s President as part of his attempt to extend French influence into Anglophone Africa. Mr Mugabe, who was put up with his wife and entourage in a luxurious Paris hotel at the French Government’s expense, said: “We felt at home here.”

He told Radio France Internationale in an interview shortly before flying back to Harare: “We have received tremendous hospitality, and we are leaving with a very good impression of France.” His remarks will be an embarrassment to M Chirac, who said he had invited Mr Mugabe to Paris despite a European Union travel ban so that he could tell the Zimbabwean President “face to face” of his concerns.

If France’s head of state did criticise Mr Mugabe, the message did not get through. In a long, rambling answer to the radio interviewer, Mr Mugabe praised M Chirac for overriding objections to his invitation from Britain and other EU countries. “It has been an excellent summit, truly excellent,” Mr Mugabe said.

“President Chirac insisted that we should come because some other members of the European Union did not want President Mugabe here. He had to put his foot down on principle, and we regard him as a principled person, absolutely principled. He is the kind of leader we regard as very important, given the state of the international community.”

With the reporter unable to get in more than one question during the entire interview, Mr Mugabe added: “We want M Chirac to continue playing his role so that he can serve as a link between developing countries, particularly in Africa, and developed countries.”

Mr Mugabe, who celebrated his 79th birthday yesterday, concluded: “All I can say is that all the European Union should behave like France.”

Earlier, M Chirac had defended his decision to invite some of Africa’s most brutal rulers to the summit. “We want to encourage, accompany and reinforce the movement towards democracy in Africa, but we do not want to dictate it,” he said. “We go down this path hand in hand with African countries.”

Questioned about an editorial in Britain’s The Sun comparing him to a worm and denouncing his policies over Zimbabwe and Iraq, M Chirac said: “France’s battle is a battle for law, for morality and for mutual respect.”

But it was another comment that probably came nearest to explaining M Chirac’s determination to bring Mr Mugabe to Paris, whatever the price. “France wants to play the role of a catalyst in the service of a multipolar world,” he said. In other words, he will do all he can to prevent the US from being a unique pole of attraction, influence and power.

One upshot of this policy is the drive to extend French influence in Africa, even if that means having to wine and dine the likes of Mr Mugabe at the Elysée, as M Chirac did on Thursday night.

The moves to gather support for France’s resistance to war with Iraq also reflect this policy. Yesterday M Chirac won backing from the 52 delegations in Paris for the summit when they signed a declaration that “there is an alternative to war”.

Speaking at a press conference at the end of the summit, M Chirac said: “Things being as they are today, everything argues for the fact that the goal (of Iraqi disarmament) can be achieved by peaceful means, that is to say through inspections, and not by military means.”

Apart from rallying African nations around France’s position on Iraq, the summit seemed to produce only one tangible result: the resumption of negotiations between rebels and government forces in Ivory Coast. The West African country has been in the grip of a civil war since September despite French attempts to impose a peace settlement.

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