Geneva — PRESIDENT Mugabe arrived in the Swiss capital of Geneva yesterday to attend the United Nations information summit, confounding critics that were claiming the Zimbabwean leader was growing isolated.

President Mugabe, who quit the Commonwealth last Sunday after the bloc extended Zimbabwe's 18-month suspension, was met at Geneva's Cointrin airport by Zimbabwe's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Mr Chitsaka Chipaziwa and officials from the country's embassy here.

Also in the welcoming party was the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Cde Christopher Mushowe, the ministry's permanent secretary, retired Colonel Chris Katsande and other senior Government officials who were already here for the summit.

Cde Mugabe is being accompanied by the First Lady, Cde Grace Mugabe, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity, Prof Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr Olivia Muchena, the Secretary for Information and Publicity, Cde George Charamba and other senior Government officials.

The President, who is expected to address the summit today, will join more than 50 heads of state or government who are expected to attend the summit, which is looking at ways to ensure the expanding use of the Internet in developing countries.

The Geneva summit comes amid a looming split within the Commonwealth over Zimbabwe, with southern African members blasting those who voted to prolong its suspension in the grouping of former British colonies as "dismissive, intolerant and rigid" and warning that the body's unity was at stake.

Twelve Commonwealth members who also belong to the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (Sadc) expressed "displeasure and deep concern with the dismissive, intolerant and rigid attitude" of members who had taken a hard line.

It warned that the divide over Zimbabwe "does not augur well for the future of the Commonwealth."

Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, who is the current head of the African Union, said the older Commonwealth members had adopted tactics of "pressure and punishment".

"The organisation did not reach this decision by consensus," he said, adding that those who pushed through the decision against Zimbabwe did not understand the situation of those trying to build democracy in states only recently emerging from the rule of "abject racialist powers."

Themba Dlamini, the Prime Minister of the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, struck a warning note even before the Commonwealth decision was announced.

"It must take into cognisance that Africans have an obligation of deciding their future so the western world must not use its financial muscle to dictate terms to Africans," he said.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa also accused rich Commonwealth nations of riding roughshod over the others.

"The Western countries bulldozed the suspension of Zimbabwe partly because of their economic muscle," he was quoted as saying in the South African press on Tuesday.

Museveni said efforts were underway to reconcile the opposing positions taken on the issue by Commonwealth states during their summit in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

"There is an effort to merge the two positions because this is a serious matter, but we shall know the position in the next few days," Museveni told a press conference in Kampala after returning from Nigeria.

A senior European Commission official said on Tuesday that the EU was not seeking a change of government in the southern African country but wanted Zimbabwe to change its policies. AFP/AP