Question: ... What went wrong with Zimbabwe, particularly with the Russians? And given China's actions on this, is it now right for you to say that you are not going to go and attend the Olympics?

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown: ... As far as Zimbabwe is concerned, I think it is difficult to justify the vetoes that were put on the Zimbabwe resolution by both China and Russia. I think it is very hard to defend not taking action when we know that we have got an illegitimate government, that is holding power through violence, that is arresting people and putting them as political prisoners, incarcerating them, and a government that seems determined to hold onto power. That is why I regret what China and Russia did. Russia in particular had supported what we were proposing at the G8.

We will now, ourselves, step up our sanctions, we will ask the European Union at its meeting in a few days time to add a number of names to the sanctions list, add a number of corporate entities to that sanctions list. I have this morning asked The Treasury to work with the Financial Action Taskforce to track the wealth and the assets that are owned by the members of the Mugabe regime which we know are held in different continents, some in Asia, some in Africa, some in Europe, so that we are in a position to take tougher action against them at a later date, and I reserve the right that we will come back to the United Nations if mediation does not succeed and bring forward a further resolution at a later date.

I think that it is unfortunate that China and Russia have blocked this path when the vast majority of people in the world want to see action against the Zimbabwe regime, but the European Union and America will continue our sanctions and continue to block the sale and delivery of arms and at the same time I have talked to the UN General Secretary. He is still in the position where his envoy will be available to go to Zimbabwe. That has not been blocked by the UN resolution and I am grateful to him for confirming that there will be a UN envoy available.

I am not going to change my plans for the Olympic Games. As you know we were put under some questions over Tibet. At that point the Dalai Lama said himself that he did not want us to boycott the Olympic Games and I believe it is still right to go to the Olympic Games.

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Question: Prime Minister we have seen very slow progress on deploying a hybrid peace-keeping force in Darfur, which you made a priority last year. We have seen little enthusiasm for your aim of meeting the Millennium Development Goals, and now we see Britain's efforts on Zimbabwe flounder at the UN Security Council. Is it right to think that Britain has lost its clout on the world stage?

Prime Minister: I think quite the opposite. There are hundreds of peacekeepers in Sudan. What has prevented us doing more is the attitude of the Sudanese government. I talked to Secretary General Ban about this only yesterday when I met him in Paris, and we are determined to get the extra hundreds that are needed to make up that police and peace keeping force as soon as possible.

As far as the Millennium Development Goals are concerned, I hope you saw that at the G8 only a few days ago we put aside a billion dollars so that a million more children can get into education, so that since 2000 when we started this campaign, more than 40 million children who were not in school are now in school, we have put aside extra money over the next 5 years, $60 billion, to tackle diseases, HIV Aids, to tackle polio, tuberculosis, malaria, and we added to the number of nets available for malaria 100 million nets.

And we have reinforced the commitments that were made at Gleneagles for an extra $25 billion for Africa, and an extra $50 billion in development aid altogether. So Britain's campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which is leading to the special summit that we asked the UN Secretary General to call on 25 September, is a campaign that not only continues but has been reinforced by the decisions that have been made in Japan.

And as far as Zimbabwe is concerned, I think it was an achievement at the G8 that all members of the G8 supported action against Zimbabwe. I think that message did go right across the world, and as I say the actions of China and Russia in blocking the resolution, when it had a clear majority at the United Nations without the veto, that a majority of countries, including Burkina Faso in Africa, were voting for that resolution, it was vetoed by China and Russia, and as I say that action cannot be justified. But we are not going to be deterred, we are going to continue to enforce sanctions on the Mugabe regime and the cabal around him, and we are going to continue with our efforts that a UN special envoy should play a part in mediation so that we can bring an end to the illegitimacy of the regime and can move towards a transition.

In all these areas of foreign policy we continue to press, and I believe with some degree of achievement.

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Question: Prime Minister, back on Zimbabwe, why do you think that further EU sanctions will make any difference to Robert Mugabe? And you said that you might go back to the UN, why do you think that another effort at the UN will succeed where this one failed? And other than the envoy from the UN, what is the next step if both those things fail?

Prime Minister: Well the answer in a sense to all three of your questions is this, that the argument that was put at the United Nations last week was that mediation had started, that talks were actually taking place, that Morgan Tsvangirai had actually said just a few hours before the resolution that he was entering talks, and it is certainly true that talks are taking place and there may be some mediation and some framework agreement. What I am saying is that if that doesn't work and the results are not satisfactory then we reserve the right to go back to the United Nations to put a further resolution. And then those people who have argued that they couldn't support the first resolution because there was mediation under way and they didn't want to disrupt that by sanctions and by further embargoes and by further envoys, they would have to face up to the fact that mediation, if it hadn't succeeded, we have to take further action. Sanctions are a very important way that the European Union can put pressure on the Mugabe regime, and continue to do so. The UN envoy is going ahead and that envoy will go to Harare and make the points to Zimbabwe. And at the same time of course we have not only the European Union putting sanctions on Zimbabwe, and banning arms sales, but America is too. But clearly if mediation is not successful, we reserve the right to go back to the United Nations.

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Question: Just coming back to Zimbabwe Prime Minister, China has got huge investments in Africa and a big presence in Africa, and if they have used a veto on the eve of the Olympics, what chance would you have for them not using the veto again if you go back to the United Nations? Would it be actually morally really right to go to the Olympics, given the way that China has behaved over Zimbabwe?

Prime Minister: I reserve the right to go back to the United Nations quickly rather than taking months. That depends on whether the mediation efforts that are happening in South Africa and Zimbabwe work. And I believe that we have got a very strong case for international sanctions, for an arms embargo, as well as for the UN envoy. As I say what decisions were made by Russia and China do not seem to me to be defensible or can be justified, and I reserve the right that we will go back to the United Nations in not too long a period of time.

These are extracts from the transcript of the press conference by the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, July 14 2008