Setback for Blair as region's heads endorse outcome

Tony Blair was struggling to rescue his much-vaunted pledge to make Africa a priority for his Government last night after key nations in the continent endorsed Robert Mugabe's election victory.

As Downing Street made clear its dismay over the result, the Prime Minister prepared for a round of telephone diplomacy before announcing Britain's reaction to Mr Mugabe's fiercely disputed re-election.

The problems Mr Blair faced were underlined when observers from South Africa, Nigeria and Namibia described the election result as legitimate. The rebuff followed Britain's embarrassing failure to win black African support for Zimbabwe's suspension at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) last week.

Mr Blair denounced the state of Africa last year as "a scar on the conscience of the world" and promised that helping to tackle the continent's poverty would be a theme of his second spell in power. Last month he visited the west African nations of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone. He spoke out strongly in support of Nepad – the New Partnership for Africa's Development initiative – under which the leading industrialised nations would be encouraged to invest in the continent.

However, British diplomats admitted last night that African governments' commitment to good governance was a crucial factor in winning foreign investment. They said the manner of Mr Mugabe's re-election and its apparent endorsement by other countries were a blow to Britain's drive to win support for the Nepad scheme. A source said: "The environment we are working in makes it more difficult if African leaders are not prepared to use peer pressure on Robert Mugabe."

After the CHOGM conference, Mr Blair spelt out his fears over the impact of the Zimbabwean crisis on the rest of the continent. He said: "For Africa, it is a major issue on which their credibility and the possibility of investment flows depends."

Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "The test of Tony Blair's commitment to democracy in Africa will come over the next few days when we see whether he has the courage and determination to put together an international coalition to overturn the flawed result in Zimbabwe."

Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "Mugabe staying on in power makes efforts to help Africa all the more difficult, but we shouldn't abandon them."

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, will make a Commons statement today detailing his worries over the conduct of the elections, also making clear that he disagrees with the verdict of the African observers.

He said in a statement yesterday: "For months, the government of Zimbabwe has conducted a systematic campaign of violence and intimidation designed to achieve one outcome: power at all costs. It is no surprise that this outcome has now been achieved."

Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "Intimidation has been the hallmark of these elections from the off. It's also pretty clear that there were significant efforts to disenfranchise people in the run-up to the election and on the day itself."