THE EUROPEAN Union yesterday extended a travel ban to 11 more Zimbabwean officials and joined calls for President Robert Mugabe to step down.
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said EU foreign ministers had added the names to a list of 160 Zimbabweans - including Mr Mugabe - banned from visiting the union, to increase the pressure on Zimbabwe's government.
"I think the moment has arrived to put all the pressure for Mugabe to step down," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said before the ministers met in Brussels.
The move came after Sunday's strong call for military action by the African Union against Zimbabwe's regime from Kenya's prime minister, Raila Odinga.
Adding his voice to the growing global opposition to Mr Mugabe's disastrous attempts to extend his chaotic 28-year rule, Mr Odinga also called for the 84-year-old to face investigation by the International Criminal Court.
"If no troops are available, then the AU must allow the UN to send its forces into Zimbabwe with immediate effect, to take over control of the country and ensure urgent humanitarian assistance to the people dying of cholera," he said.
Since last August nearly 600 Zimbabweans have died from the water-borne disease, caused by a lack of water purification chemicals and the collapse of the sewage and healthcare systems.
The World Health Organisation said last weekend nearly 14,000 cases of the disease have now been reported, but experts believe the actual infection rate is far higher.
Zimbabwe's political and economic situation has declined rapidly since elections last March, with Mr Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai unable to agree on a powersharing deal.
However, the growing humanitarian crisis - in addition to the cholera epidemic, some five million Zimbabweans will need food aid by next month - has led to an unprecedented level of international condemnation of Mr Mugabe.
Aside from Mr Odinga, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, British prime minister Gordon Brown, Botswana's foreign minister Phandu Skelemani, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have all called on Mr Mugabe to step down in recent days.
Mr Odinga criticised the silence of many African leaders, saying they had shamed the continent by treating Mr Mugabe with "kid gloves" because of his liberation struggle credentials.
"We refuse to accept the idea that African countries should be judged by lesser standards than other countries in the world," Mr Odinga said, before adding that "participation in the liberation struggle is no licence for anyone to own a country".
Responding to Gordon Brown's recent criticism, the Zimbabwean government accused Britain through the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper of using the cholera outbreak to gather support for an invasion of the collapsing country.