Ian Smith, the controversial former Prime Minister of Rhodesia, took part in a debate at the Oxford Union last night.

Mr Smith, who made the famous unilateral declaration of independence from Britain, spoke in support of the motion that This House believes that African leaders put power before people.

Other speakers included Lord Deedes, former chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on immigration, and MP Peter Kilfoyle, the former minister, who resigned from the Labour Government in protest at New Labour policies.

Meanwhile, in a speech at the University law faculty in St Cross Road last night, European Commissioner Chris Patten warned Britain was going to come under growing pressure to "come into line" on the euro.

Mr Patten said there had been too much emphasis on sovereignty in the debate about Europe in the UK.

The former Conservative Party chairman said Britain was already "no longer part of the inner circle of economic policy-making in the European Union" and there would soon be more economic co-operation within the so-called Eurogroup.

"There is growing pressure, of course, for closer economic co-ordination in the EU.

"Britain can resist indefinitely the extension of majority voting to new areas and thereby maintain her veto on sensitive issues like tax, he added.

"A man, naked, hungry and alone in the middle of the Sahara desert is free in the sense that no-one can tell him what to do. He is sovereign then, but he is also doomed.