By Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union extended a travel ban to 11 more Zimbabwean officials on Monday and joined calls for President Robert Mugabe to step down after 28 years in power.
Spreading cholera, food shortages and economic collapse have brought new demands for Mugabe's resignation from his old foes in the West. He blames Western sanctions for Zimbabwe's hardship. Critics blame his increasingly authoritarian rule.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said EU foreign ministers had added 11 more names to a list of 160 Zimbabweans -- including Mugabe -- banned from visiting the bloc, a move meant to increase the pressure on Zimbabwe's government.
"I think the moment has arrived to put all the pressure for Mugabe to step down," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said before the ministers' meeting in Brussels.
Echoing similar calls from the United States and former colonial power Britain, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said "President Mugabe must go. Zimbabwe has suffered enough."
But Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told Reuters Mugabe was constitutionally elected.
"No foreign leader, regardless of how powerful they are, has the right to call on him to step down on their whim," he said.
The United States said it would continue to push for the international community to act on Zimbabwe, but said the country's neighbours held the most influence.
"We made extensive efforts in the Security Council to get the international system to act, and we are going to continue those efforts, but quite frankly some of the states in the region have to step up. They need to use their leverage," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
South African ruling ANC party leader Jacob Zuma urged swift action to end Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by political deadlock between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over implementing a power-sharing deal.
The impact of Zimbabwe's crisis is felt keenly in South Africa, where cholera victims seeking treatment have joined millions of immigrants who have fled in search of jobs.
"Some swift action is clearly needed," Zuma said in Namibia.
South African officials were in Zimbabwe to assess the scale of the crisis, responding to an unprecedented appeal for international help from Mugabe's government.
Basic foodstuffs are running out and the cholera epidemic has killed at least 575 people.
Prices of goods are doubling every 24 hours, and the 100 million Zimbabwean dollar a week limit for bank withdrawals buys only three loaves of bread in the once relatively prosperous country.
CONTAMINATED WATER
Hopes of rescuing Zimbabwe have dimmed while deadlock continues between Mugabe and Tsvangirai over forming a government in line with a deal in September that followed widely condemned and violent elections.
"More pressure needs to be brought to bear on the negotiating parties to ensure a speedy conclusion of an agreement," Zuma said.
The health system cannot cope with the cholera epidemic and the water supply network has failed, forcing people to drink from contaminated wells and streams.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga urged the African Union on Sunday to hold an emergency summit to formulate a resolution to send troops into Zimbabwe to deal with the crisis.
Botswanan Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate, have also called for Mugabe's removal.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement issued by the Elders, a group of prominent figures that includes ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Tutu, that there was "bitter disappointment in the current leadership."
South Africa's powerful COSATU trade union federation said on Monday that 38 members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions arrested during protests last week had been released after five days in detention.
Seven of those released had appeared in court and been charged "with inciting the public to rise against the government" before being released on bail, COSATU said.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Banya, James Mackenzie and Francois Murphy in Paris and Paul Simao in Pretoria; editing by Matthew Tostevin)
