President Robert Mugabe says Zimbabwe's first high-level talks with top EU officials in seven years went well.

Robert Mugabe总统称津巴布韦与欧盟高层官员七年以来的会谈进展顺利。

After the talks, in Harare, he again called for international sanctions imposed since disputed presidential election in 2002 to be lifted.

The EU team also praised the meeting but indicated it was not appropriate yet for sanctions to end and complained about the slow pace of reforms.

The EU team later met PM Morgan Tsvangirai.

'Good rapport¹'

Before going into the talks with the EU team, Mr Mugabe said: "We welcome you with open arms. We hope our talks will be fruitful with a positive outcome."

When he reappeared after they ended, he told the BBC the talks had gone well.

He said: "We established a good rapport, it was a friendly meeting. Obviously they thought the Global Political Agreement was not working well."

The Global Political Agreement is the power-sharing deal that was sealed a year ago, most importantly with Mr Tsvangirai.

Mr Mugabe said that "everything we were asked to do under GPA we have done".

The EU team, led by Development Commissioner² Karel De Gucht, expressed satisfaction with the talks, saying there had been "progress" in a "very open atmosphere".

But the BBC's Andrew Harding, in Harare, says the EU team also pointed³ out the problems it had with the current situation.

The team, which has described the visit as an attempt to reopen political dialogue with Zimbabwe, said it was not appropriate to lift sanctions at the moment or for major aid to start.

Mr de Gucht said he hoped the president realised the need for "more understanding between the three principals - himself, the prime minister and the vice-prime minister".

Our correspondent says that one year on from the announcement of power-sharing, there remain serious doubts about human rights, the stalling of political reform and the good faith of President Mugabe and his supporters.

In a speech a day before meeting the delegation⁴, Mr Mugabe had lashed⁵ out at the Western sanctions, accusing whites of wanting to "poke⁶ their nose into own our own affairs".

"We have stood firm and we have refused to let go. Zimbabwe - sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe remains⁷ ours," he told a meeting of his Zanu-PF youth wing in Harare.

Conditional⁸ removal

Last week, African leaders had called for sanctions against the country to be lifted but Mr de Gucht said the measures had "no impact on the common population".

Sweden's Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson and Mr de Gucht will be in the country until Sunday.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the EU presidency⁹, said last week that the EU was not considering lifting sanctions.

Long-time opposition¹⁰ leader Mr Tsvangirai wants a removal of sanctions to be conditional on how well the power-sharing deal signed a year ago has been implemented¹¹（应用的）.

But last week the leaders of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) rejected that proposal.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who has criticised Mr Mugabe in the past and was expected to side with Mr Tsvangirai, said there should be no conditions placed on the removal of sanctions.