The Government of Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister, has used “wholly disproportionate means” to suppress protests about the May elections, Lord Triesman, the Africa Minister, said yesterday.

Britain is now trying to exert pressure with a barrage of phone calls to Addis Ababa, by calling for condemnation by the United Nations Security Council and by withholding £20 million of the £90 million it was due to give Ethiopia this year. But the crisis highlights the vulnerability of the high hopes that Blair, helped by Bob Geldof, raised at the Gleneagles G8 summit in July.

The Gleneagles principle was to reward Africa for good governance. Britain is loath, these days, to behave like a colonial power and tell a country how to spend money. As Triesman put it, “there is always anxiety about intervening in the internal affairs of African countries”. But money remains one of the few levers a donor has over a country — even though, as Ethiopia shows, it is not a very strong one.

Yesterday shops reopened in Addis Ababa after the Government threatened to cancel licences of people heeding the opposition call for a strike. But after the clashes between government forces and protesters, in which at least 46 people died last week, thousands of people remain in prison, including 24 key opposition leaders, activists and journalists.

Triesman said he was not condoning the actions of the rioters, but that “the response from the Government exceeds anything which is in any sense acceptable”.

The Government had fired live rounds into crowds, which British officials had confirmed by visits to hospitals. Many of those arrested had been beaten before they were taken, in front of many witnesses. The Meles Government was “treating (the protests) as an insurrection, not a political demonstration”, Triesman said.

Britain has now frozen £20 million it was due to give the Government for its own operations. It has already paid £30 million in aid this year. Triesman said he was very confident that this had gone to its intended purposes and not to buy military kit for use in the conflict with Eritrea.

Britain is still due to give £40 million more in humanitarian aid. This (it believes) will pass through non-governmental organisations to projects on the ground. Triesman says that Britain is now “making sure” that the cash cannot be diverted to government purposes.

Aside from that, Britain is now trying to get access to prisoners for the International Committee of the Red Cross, and to get political leaders released. It is also asking the Eritrean Government not to inflame the volatile border and resume that crippling war.

Britain is also trying for some kind of Security Council pressure. But Triesman said that “despite the flaws (in the election) it did certainly appear that Meles had secured a working majority”, although he did not want to prejudge the several formal inquiries.

This list is Britain’s answer to the charge that it has not applied enough pressure on the Meles Government. But if Meles does not release prisoners and begin the “dialogue” that Britain wants, then Britain will be stuck in the nasty dilemma that Gleneagles sidestepped.

It will not want to turn off the tap of cash to such poor people. But it will then be open to the charge of supporting a bad government as it takes a long step back from democracy.