Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president walked into the European Union-Africa summit on Saturday conscious that he had won the first part of the argument with his bête noire, Britain, merely by being invited.

The Zimbabwean delegation has been buoyed also by the recent comments of Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the EU Commission, who acknowledged Mr Mugabe’s stature as a ”leader” and took a swipe at Gordon Brown for boycotting the meeting in Lisbon because of his presence.