Zuma presses UK on role in Zimbabwe

LONDON - Britain said on Thursday it wanted to see further progress on human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe before the European Union lifts sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his allies. Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended sanctions on Zimbabwe after talks with South African President Jacob Zuma who has called for them to be lifted.

Zuma played down a controversy caused by comments he made just before he left for a pomp-filled state visit to Britain in which he accused the British of believing they were superior. He said on Thursday he was speaking "in the context of how people judge other people's cultures" and he was "not necessarily trying to condemn the British or whatever."

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, regularly accuses the British and their Western allies of ruining the Zimbabwean economy through sanctions.