Brown backs fresh Zimbabwe sanctions

The prime minister has said he hopes the United Nations Security Council will agree fresh sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.

Speaking on the last day of the G8 summit in Japan, Gordon Brown said a draft UN resolution proposes an arms embargo, plus travel and financial sanctions on 14 individuals.

"The mood is outrage against what is happening in Zimbabwe, disgust at the behaviour of the Zimbabwean regime, an acceptance by all of them that this is an illegitimate regime that has got blood on its hands," he told reporters.

Brown said the discussion would now move to the UN Security Council in New York, where he hoped to win backing for a UK and US-backed draft resolution proposing tougher sanctions.

"It makes clear that we do not consider that the election that took place recently was either free or fair," he said.

The UK and the US believed the resolution would gain "considerable support", he said.

It lists 14 individuals in the Mugabe regime who would be banned form travelling, while their assets would be frozen in "any country where there are bank accounts".