European Union sanctions against Zimbabwe, including an arms embargo, are to continue for another year, the bloc's governments decided.

Western powers imposed restrictive measures on the country in 2002, in reaction to allegations of electoral rigging and human rights abuses by President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country since 1980.

EU sanctions ban the sale "of arms and of equipment that can be used for internal repression," prevent Mugabe and his allies from "entering or transiting the EU member states" and impose an asset freeze on people and firms suspected of supporting the regime, a EU statement said.

The decision - to remain in effect until February 20, 2011 - was formally adopted by the EU's Education and Culture ministers, who rubber-stamped a position formulated earlier by diplomats.

Hopes for a democratic evolution in Zimbabwe were raised in 2009, when, as a result of a coalition agreement with Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai became prime minister.

But the 85-year-old Mugabe signalled in January that his party was not prepared to share power with Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) unless it convinced the West to remove sanctions against the regime.