Leaders to press Mugabe at summit

African leaders are expected to press President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday to negotiate with Zimbabwe's opposition but are unlikely to punish his government for holding a discredited presidential election.

Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a new five-year term on Sunday after election authorities announced he had won a landslide victory in a one-candidate presidential run-off ballot condemned as violent and unfair by monitors.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the vote.

Most African leaders have trod a fine line on Zimbabwe's political crisis with only a few criticising Mugabe, still seen by many in Africa as a hero of the anti-colonial struggle.

The possibility of political violence in the aftermath of the election has prompted the African Union to consider the crisis at its summit this week in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Mugabe is among the leaders attending the meeting.

Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission and Africa's top diplomat, told journalists on Monday that the Zimbabwe election would be discussed on Tuesday.

A senior delegate, however, told Reuters the leaders would err on the side of caution. "They will dodge the bullet. They won't expressly recognise him, but they won't kick him out of the session."

The summit appeared to be opposed to a U.S.-led push at the United Nations for strong sanctions against Mugabe's government, including an arms embargo. The United States and Britain have imposed financial and travel sanctions against the Zimbabwean leader and his top officials.

Conference sources said countries from east and west Africa wanted to take a strong stand but Mugabe's southern African neighbours were divided.

UNITY GOVERNMENT

Instead, they were moving toward a consensus on the need for Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party to negotiate with Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, possibly with the goal of forming a unity government.

South Africa, which has mediated in talks between the two sides, favours such an arrangement which could be modelled on the power-sharing deal that ended post-election violence in Kenya earlier this year.

Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the presidential vote on March 29 but failed to win an absolute majority.

The MDC leader reluctantly agreed to participate in the June 27 run-off but pulled out less than a week before because of violence in which he said nearly 90 of his followers were killed. He was arrested five times during the campaign.

Monitors from Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Pan-African parliament said the vote was undermined by the bloodshed and did not reflect the will of the people.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai say they are ready for African-sponsored talks, although the animosity between them and the issue of who would lead a unity government may be insurmountable obstacles to an agreement.

Tsvangirai called on the summit leaders not to recognise Mugabe's re-election.

Zimbabwe's electoral commission said Mugabe won more than 85 percent of the vote, almost doubling his score in the first round.