(LONDON) - Britain vowed Monday to increase pressure on Zimbabwe's leaders by pushing for tougher EU sanctions and hunting down their assets around the world, after failing to secure bolstered UN action.

To the fury of Britain and the United States, Russia and China vetoed stronger United Nations sanctions on President Robert Mugabe's inner circle Friday, citing ongoing mediation between his ruling party and the opposition.

However, Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted Britain was "not going to be deterred" from tough action on Mugabe and would return to the UN Security Council with a new draft resolution if those talks failed -- and then see where Beijing and Moscow stood.

In Paris, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he would seek wider European Union sanctions at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on July 22 and 23.

"We are looking at a deeper hit on the financial sector and a wider travel ban," he told reporters.

EU sanctions against Mugabe's regime currently target 132 individuals.

Miliband stressed the sanctions were "not an economic boycott," saying "the test is targeting those members of the regime who are propping up Mugabe."

Brown, speaking in London, said he wanted a clutch of people and corporations added to the EU sanctions list.

Miliband reaffirmed his bewilderment at Beijing and Moscow's stance.

"Why would China and Russia veto a resolution aimed at 14 people who are directly responsible for the maintenance of the regime?" he said.

"The answer they have given is this is not a regional crisis... When you have got four million refugees I don't see how you can say it's not a regional crisis."

Brown said he had asked the British Treasury to work with the Financial Action Task Force -- an inter-governmental body which tackles money laundering and terrorist financing -- to hunt down the assets of those surrounding Mugabe.

The prime minister wants "to track the wealth and the assets that are owned by members of the Mugabe regime... so that we are in position to take tougher action at a later date," he told his monthly news conference.

Those assets are held in Asia, Africa and Europe, he said.

"I reserve the right that we will come back to the United Nations if mediation does not succeed and bring forward a further resolution... quickly rather than taking months," he added.

If those talks failed, countries that had opposed sanctions the first time round would then "have to face up to that fact" when Britain pushed forward another draft sanctions resolution at the UN.

"The EU and America will continue our sanctions and continue to block the sale and delivery of arms," Brown added.

Mugabe was re-elected in a run-off last month after his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out, citing a campaign of intimidation and violence against his supporters that had killed dozens and injured thousands.

Brown said the Chinese veto on Zimbabwe would not deter him from attending the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing next month.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.