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ROME — Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who is facing a runoff election later this month, was in Italy Monday to attend a U.N. food summit, a spokesman said.
The ANSA news agency said Mugabe flew in late Sunday and was driven into Rome with a police escort.
Zimbabwean Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said Mugabe was invited to attend the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's summit on food security and it was important for Zimbabwe to be represented.
"He is the current president of Zimbabwe and he will be the president for the next five years," he said.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidential ballot March 29 but not by an outright majority, and a runoff presidential is scheduled for June 27.
The 84-year-old Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, is accused of overseeing the country's descent into economic crisis that has left an increasing number of Zimbabweans unable to afford food and other essentials.
It was his first official foreign trip since he finished second in a March 29 presidential race, and comes as his government cracks down on the opposition in the run-up to a June 27 presidential runoff.
Matonga said Mugabe's ZANU-PF party had no concerns that his absence would affect campaigning or the president's chances of winning the upcoming election.
"We're very confident that he's going to win and that's why he could afford to go to Rome to represent Zimbabwe in this crucial meeting," Matonga said. "This is about more than politics, it's about people's stomachs."
Mugabe is generally subject to EU sanctions and travel restrictions. He attended an EU-Africa summit in Portugal in 2007 after the travel ban was temporarily lifted for the visit.d INT
Monday is a holiday in Italy and officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Mugabe attended a similar meeting in Rome in 2002. EU and U.N. officials said at that time that the ban couldn't prevent him from attending an international meeting.
At the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon in December, the EU agreed to let him in after other African leaders made clear they would stay away unless Mugabe was allowed to attend. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown stayed home in protest.
