Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe.

BERLIN (AP):

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday that she hopes African leaders will support tougher sanctions against Zimbabwe when they participate in the upcoming Group of Eight summit.

Leaders, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, whom Zimbabwe's Opposition has accused of bias toward President Robert Mugabe, and Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, have been invited to a meeting as part of the summit in Japan, starting tomorrow.

Merkel told The Associated Press last week that the European Union would seek "all possible sanctions" against Zimbabwe's government and leader in the wake of its widely denounced presidential election runoff.

She underlined that stance in her weekly video message, in which she looked ahead to the G-8 summit.

toughening sanctions

"We will confer on how we can toughen sanctions against Zimbabwe, and I hope that we will also get support from our African colleagues here," Merkel said.

Mbeki made a brief, unannounced visit to Zimbabwe yesterday, before heading to the G-8 meeting later in the day, his spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said.

During a visit of a few hours in his role as mediator, he met with Mugabe and some members of the Opposition, Ratshitanga said. Former opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai was not one of the people Mbeki met.

Ratshitanga refused to say what was discussed, but said it was not related to the G-8.

The EU already has travel bans and an asset freeze in place on Mugabe and other senior Zimbabwean officials. However, African Union leaders have failed to deliver a strong unified message over voting widely dismissed as a farce after Tsvangirai pulled out, citing violence and intimidation.

Beyond Zimbabwe, Merkel said that the G-8 and African leaders would discuss "how the industrial countries can help African countries strengthen their own farming sector" in the face of soaring food prices.

standards for growing crops

She added that they would consider what standards should be applied to growing crops for biofuels "so that no competition with food production worldwide can arise".

Merkel said it was "particularly important" for the world's leading industrial nations to confer with top emerging economies - China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa - in discussing how to tackle high energy prices.

"We will consider to what extent it is possible to stem speculation and bring output into line with demand," she said.