The EU extended a travel ban to 11 more Zimbabwean officials yesterday and joined calls for President Robert Mugabe to step down after 28 years in power. Spreading cholera, food shortages and economic collapse have brought new demands for Mr Mugabe's resignation from his old foes in the West. He blames Western sanctions for Zimbabwe's hardship. Critics blame his increasingly authoritarian rule.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said EU foreign ministers had added 11 more names to a list of 160 Zimbabweans - including Mr Mugabe - banned from visiting the bloc, a move meant to increase the pressure on Zimbabwe's government.

"I think the moment has arrived to put all the pressure for Mugabe to step down," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said before the ministers' meeting in Brussels.

Echoing similar calls from the US and former colonial power Britain, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said "President Mugabe must go. Zimbabwe has suffered enough".

But Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said Mr Mugabe was constitutionally elected.

"No foreign leader, regardless of how powerful they are, has the right to call on him to step down on their whim," he said.

The US said it would continue to push for the international community to act on Zimbabwe, but said the country's neighbours held the most influence.

"We made extensive efforts in the Security Council to get the international system to act, and we are going to continue those efforts, but quite frankly some of the states in the region have to step up. They need to use their leverage," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

South African ruling ANC party leader Jacob Zuma urged swift action to end Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by political deadlock between Mr Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over implementing a power-sharing deal.

The impact of Zimbabwe's crisis is felt keenly in South Africa, where cholera victims seeking treatment have joined millions of immigrants who have fled in search of jobs.