Johannesburg - South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki was due to travel to France later Thursday for the first South Africa- European Union summit, which was expected to be dominated by the situation in Zimbabwe and the status of international trade talks. Mbeki is to be accompanied to the summit in Bordeaux by his foreign, trade, science and environment ministers. The EU delegation will be led European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, foreign policy chief Javier Solana and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency.
The summit follows the establishment in 2007 of an EU-South Africa strategic partnership aimed at boosting economic and political cooperation between Africa's largest economy and the 27-member bloc.
Over the past four years senior EU officials and South African ministers have been meeting regularly to discuss trade and other issues.
South Africa has been one of the strongest opponents of the new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), with which the EU wants to replace its past trade agreements with African, Caribbean and Pacific states that the World Trade Organization declared illegal.
The EPAs reduce tariffs and quotas on two-way trade with the union. Several African countries signed interim EPAs with the EU late last year. South Africa is one of several countries that resisted, saying they endanger domestic industry.
South Africa is also holding out for a better deal at the current World Trade Organization talks in Geneva. While saluting EU proposals to further cut farm subsidies South Africa says the reciprocal gesture being asked of developing countries on tariffs on industrial goods is too onerous.
While trade was expected to take centre stage at the talks, Mbeki was also likely to be quizzed by EU leaders over the progress of talks on a unity government in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki is the Southern African Development Community (SADC)- appointed mediator in Zimbabwe.
In a breakthrough for his notoriously "quiet" mediation Mbeki pulled off the first face-to-face meeting in a decade between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a deal to engage in talks on forming a powersharing government. Those talks, between representatives of Mugabe's Zanu-PF and two factions of the MDC began Thursday at an undisclosed location in South Africa.
Despite the two bitter foes agreeing to talks, the EU, in a move slammed by many in Zimbabwe as badly timed, made good Tuesday on its threat of tighter sanctions against Mugabe's regime.
The union has slapped 36 more officials with travel bans and banned trade with four companies that do business with government.
