A dozen or so officials from China, Russia, North Korea, Eritrea, Libya, and South Sudan are to go on an EU blacklist of the world's worst human-rights abusers after a preliminary agreement between member states' ambassadors in Brussels on Thursday evening, diplomats told EUobserver.
The visa-bans and asset-freezes will be formally signed off by foreign ministers on 22 March.
Four Russians were already put on the list last month.