Mugabe and Chirac at the 2003 summit.
Photo Laurent Rebours/APTechnically, Robert Mugabe should not be able to travel to Europe - the EU has imposed targeted sanctions against the Zimbabwean president and his senior entourage because of widespread
But there is a strong chance that Mr Mugabe, a political pariah to the west at least, will turn up in Cannes for the 23rd Franco-African summit next month.
For Jacques Chirac, the French president, an invitation to Mr Mugabe poses quite a dilemma.
Once a colonial power in Africa, France still clings to the idea that it can wield influence in the region, and Zimbabwe remains an important African state.
But human rights groups find the prospect appalling, as does the British trade union movement.
The Trades Union Congress today called for a demonstration outside the French embassy on Friday to put pressure on France not to invite Mr Mugabe to the summit. Brendan Barber, the head of the TUC, wrote the following to the French ambassador in Britain.
An invitation to the summit is tantamount to acquiescence to the policies of a regime responsible for numerous violations of human rights and for the unprecedented social and economic crisis facing Zimbabwe.
To complicate matters, Paris now faces a weighty rival as China busies itself winning friends and influence on the continent.
But Mr Mugabe's presence would be an embarrassment, as it was in 2003. Then, Mr Chirac tried to have it both ways by warning his guests that leaders who abused their citizens could end up in the new international criminal court.
Some leaders, however, found the lecture offensive, accusing Mr Chirac of sounding like an old colonialist.
The French president would make like much easier for himself, and make an important statement, by simply not sending that invitation to Mr Mugabe.
