Sanctions against Zimbabwe

US President George W. Bush said yesterday the US was looking at imposing more sanctions against Zimbabwe's government after a UN resolution was torpedoed by Russia and China last week.

A robust US sanctions package is already in place against President Robert Mugabe and other senior Zimbabwean officials and Mr Bush told reporters the US wanted to see if more punitive measures could be effective.

"I think the thing we need to do now is for us to analyse whether or not we can have some more bilateral sanctions on the regime leaders," Mr Bush told a news conference, adding that he was disappointed by China and Russia's actions.

The proposed UN sanctions that failed last Friday would have imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe as well as financial and travel restrictions on Mr Mugabe and 13 other officials.