BRUSSELS (Reuters) ¿ British Prime Minister Gordon Brown looks to have isolated himself rather than Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe by boycotting an EU-Africa summit next month in protest at the veteran leader's presence.

Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe, will have at most a junior minister at the table when the European Union and the continent with which it has close but tortured ties sit down for their first summit in seven years in Lisbon on December 8-9.

Only one other EU leader, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, is likely to join Brown in staying away, diplomats say, while most argue it is better to criticise Mugabe's record on human rights and economic governance to his face.

"We understand the domestic political reasons why this is difficult for Gordon Brown, but we cannot allow Europe's strategic relationship with Africa to be kept eternally hostage to the Mugabe issue," a senior European Commission official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Western governments accuse the 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader of gross human rights violations and ruining his country's economy, but many Africans see him as a hero of the independence struggle who is still resisting Anglo-American hegemony.

As the EU struggles to counter China's growing influence in commodities-rich Africa, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, the summit host as holder of the bloc's presidency, has made clear the meeting is about building a strategic partnership with Africa, not about Zimbabwe.

For the past seven years, all attempts to meet failed because Britain and its allies sought to exclude Mugabe and African leaders would not come without him.

One EU diplomat said Brown had manoeuvred himself into a "lose-lose situation", where he lost if Mugabe attended but also if the summit were called off because of Zimbabwe.

But another said Brown's early signal that he would stay away if Mugabe came had helped the presidency save the summit.

"I'm a bit upset to see there is a risk that the summit will be taken hostage by that question (Mugabe's attendance)," European Development Commissioner Louis Michel told reporters.

"If that were the case, I would be not only sad but angry, because it would be a missed opportunity, and we cannot afford a missed opportunity."

Michel noted there had been three China-Africa summits since the last EU-Africa meeting in Cairo in 2000, and even Japan was preparing a summit with Africa.

Michel listed a range of topics on which the EU, Africa's biggest aid donor and trade partner, needed to work with the continent, including peacekeeping, climate change, energy, trade and regional economic development, migration and technology.

The British do not want to be blamed for torpedoing a summit widely seen as essential to counter the steady growth of China's influence pursuing a no-strings-attached resource diplomacy in contrast with the EU's strictly conditioned aid policies.

Diplomats said despite its objection to inviting Mugabe, London is not expected to stop the waiving of an EU visa ban so the Zimbabwean leader and his delegation can attend the summit.

"We want the summit to be a success and to go ahead, but we don't believe that will be the case if Mugabe attends," a British official said.

Asked whether London would block the visa waiver for Mugabe, he said: "If blocking it means the whole summit implodes, then I don't think we would want that."

British officials say they had not pushed EU partners to join Brown's boycott and would welcome public pressure on Mugabe from leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Michel hoped South African President Thabo Mbeki would succeed in trying to broker a deal between Zimbabwe's government and opposition to hold free elections next year to allow a political transition. "I really expect President Mbeki will succeed and I think we have a duty to help him," he said.

Thus optimists in Brussels and London hope Lisbon may be a "last hurrah" for Mugabe. But sceptics say there has been South African mediation for years, and the man who led Zimbabwe to independence from Britain in 1980 is still there.