SYDNEY, March 1: Commonwealth foreign ministers meeting in Australia on Friday kept mum on possible sanctions against Zimbabwe over the rolling back of democracy in the troubled African country.

Action against Zimbabwe is on top of the agenda at the four-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that opens Saturday at the Queensland resort of Coolum.

The Commonwealth is a loose federation of Britain and its former colonies that claims to represent a third of the world’s population.

The chairman of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, Botswana’s Foreign Minister Mompati Merafhe, refused to be drawn on what the eight-member panel had agreed.

“I’m afraid I can’t share what we’ve decided to do,” Lieutenant General Merafhe told Australia’s AAP news agency.

Asked if the meeting reached an agreement on Zimbabwe, Merafhe said: “We reached agreement on practically everything”.

Commonwealth leaders are under intense pressure to act against Zimbabwe for its treatment of white farmers and its crackdown on free speech in the run up to an election that pits 78-year-old President Robert Mugabe against an opposition united against an extension of his 22-year rule.

Nigeria and South Africa have blocked attempts to throw Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth or issue it anything more than a mild rebuke.

A decision on possible sanctions will be made over the weekend. Sanctions, expulsion from the Commonwealth or doing nothing until the outcome of next week’s general election is known are all possible scenarios.

Prime Minister John Howard said it would be “unwise” to say before CHOGM convened whether Australia would join European countries and the United States in imposing sanctions against Zimbabwe.

But Prime Minister Tony Blair, in remarks before leaving Britain to attend CHOGM, said he believed the Commonwealth would act.

“Any attempt to undermine the democratic process has got to be met by a strong statement from the Commonwealth,” Blair said. “Beyond doubt is that the election (in Zimbabwe) should have been entirely free and fair and it hasn’t been.”

Also on the table at CHOGM, which is convened every two years, is a proposal to re-admit Pakistan as a member of the Commonwealth.

Pakistan was expelled when the military took charge and is unlikely to get its place back until democratic elections are held.

At Coolum the first group of protesters had assembled outside the gates of the secluded beachfront resort where the talkfest is being held.

About a dozen followers of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement outlawed in China, were waving banners and performing peace rituals to grab the attention of Commonwealth leaders as they arrive.

CHOGM protester Tim Stewart said that Zimbabwe was not the only issue on the table and that Australia’s continued membership of the Commonwealth should also be questioned over its detention of asylum seekers.—dpa