EU ambassadors have extended sanctions against Zimbabwe for another year but president Mugabe will still be allowed to visit Paris next week.

Against a background of deep EU divisions over Iraq, diplomats finally drew a line under the controversial issue that had added to tensions between France and Britain.

Measures targeting the African dictator's regime, officials and "cronies" were set to expire on Tuesday.

Extension of the smart sanctions were delayed after Paris held out for an exemption allowing Mugabe to attend a three-day Franco-African summit on Wednesday.

His stay is likely to marked by demonstrations highlighting Zimbabwe's human rights record, and some campaigners have vowed to seek Mugabe's arrest.

Conservative MEP Geoffrey van Orden condemned the compromise, which comes at a time when Zimbabwe's opposition is facing continuing repression.

"The EU is being pathetic and sending entirely the wrong message both to Mugabe and the suffering millions in Zimbabwe. It is not weak political compromises that are needed from the EU, but stronger measures to bring about urgent change for the better in Zimbabwe," he said.

"I find it extraordinary that, at the very moment when yet another Zimbabwe opposition MP has been arrested and the opposition leader is on trial facing the most dubious of treason charges, EU ambassadors have had to spend time finding a way of allowing avoidance of their own sanctions."

The French move sparked official protests from Britain, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

But Paris claimed it will use Mugabe's visit to pressure Harare over human rights

EU countries imposed diplomatic sanctions in 2002, with a travel ban, a block on arms sales and a freeze on regime finances.

The measures were aimed at isolating a government that has cracked down on the independent press, the judiciary, opposition political parties and plunged Zimbabwe into economic chaos.