Mugabe's govt says no problem with summit

President Robert Mugabe's government said on Thursday it had no problem with Zambia's decision to hold an emergency regional summit on Zimbabwe this weekend but made clear it had not sought assistance.

In the first direct regional intervention over Zimbabwe's election deadlock, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said he had called the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting for Saturday because of "deepening problems" in Harare.

Mwanawasa, SADC's current chairman, gave no other details.

Concern has mounted among Zimbabwe's neighbours because no final result has been announced yet from the March 29 poll, dashing hope of quick action to turn round a ruined economy that has sent millions of refugees fleeing to surrounding countries.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which urged SADC to ask Mugabe to step down, says the Zimbabwean leader is prolonging the delay while he plans a violent response to his biggest defeat since taking power in 1980.

SADC has been criticised in the past for failing to pressure Mugabe despite the economic collapse in Zimbabwe, now suffering the world's highest hyper-inflation, chronic shortages of food and fuel and a near worthless currency.

"That's normal within SADC ... to call for meetings. We are neighbours and that is the spirit of SADC to meet and consider anything," Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu was quoted as saying by the state-run daily Herald newspaper.

"As far as we are concerned we have not asked for assistance. We are waiting for (the electoral commission) to do its work, verifying the results because it should announce the correct results, so we don't see any problem," said Ndlovu.

He said the electoral commission was "in the final stages" of its work.

The Herald reported the government was prepared to brief SADC on developments in Zimbabwe since the presidential, parliamentary, senate and local government ballots.

DISPUTES

On Wednesday, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said ruling ZANU-PF party tallies of the presidential vote showed a run-off would be necessary between Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Chinamasa said the electoral commission had ordered five constituency recounts in the parliamentary ballot in which ZANU-PF lost control of the chamber for the first time.

The MDC rejected a runoff and recounts, saying it would accept only an outright Tsvangirai win as shown by its tallies.

Official results have not been released from the presidential poll.

Mwanawasa's summit call came after Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, said the results must be released, signalling a new more robust reaction than President Thabo Mbeki who favours "quiet diplomacy".

"I think the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should have announced results by now," Zuma, who rivals Mbeki as the most powerful man in South Africa and is the frontrunner to succeed him in 2009, told the Star newspaper in Johannesburg.

Mwanawasa told reporters in Lusaka on Wednesday: "Because of the deepening problems in (Zimbabwe), I felt that this matter should be dealt with at presidential level."

Mwanawasa briefly broke ranks with other African leaders last year when he called Zimbabwe a "sinking Titanic" before getting back in line under pressure.

Chinamasa told reporters ZANU-PF was gearing up for a Mugabe-Tsvangirai run-off. He rejected MDC victory claims and said there was no need for international intervention.

"Nothing has transpired during and after the election to disturb international peace and security," he said, accusing the MDC of echoing calls by its "allies" in Washington and London.

Mugabe's critics blame him for reducing the population to misery by mismanagement that has wrecked the Zimbabwean economy. He says the West is to blame.