The African Union called today for a national unity government in Zimbabwe after the widely-condemned re-election of President Robert Mugabe in a poll scarred by violence.
A summit of the pan-African body, which had been divided over what to do about Zimbabwe, adopted a resolution calling for Mr Mugabe to enter negotiations with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the recent election because of violence.
The resolution fell short of the much tougher statement wanted by some African nations but it was a rare AU intervention in an internal political dispute and an unprecedented rebuff to Mr Mugabe, previously feted as a liberation hero. Before the two-day summit ended, Zimbabwe's neighbour Botswana called for Mr Mugabe to be barred from both the AU and southern African regional body SADC.
It was the toughest public statement from one of Zimbabwe's neighbours since Mr Mugabe was sworn in on Sunday following a one-candidate election condemned by monitors and much of world opinion as violent and unfair.
"In our considered view... the representatives of the current government in Zimbabwe should be excluded from attending SADC (Southern African Development Community) and African Union meetings," Botswana Vice President Mompati Merafhe said, according to a text of his remarks.
Botswana said Mr Mugabe's participation in African meetings "would give unqualified legitimacy to a process which cannot be considered legitimate." It said the government and opposition must be treated as equal in any mediation.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has also called for Mr Mugabe (84) to be suspended from the AU after an election which extended the veteran leader's 28-year rule.
The Botswana statement underlined the deep rifts both within Africa as a whole and among Zimbabwe's neighbours.
Regional power South Africa, the designated mediator in Zimbabwe, has resisted open condemnation of Mr Mugabe. The summit called for SADC mediation to continue.
The AU summit in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh was dominated by a deepening political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, whose once prosperous economy is racked by the world's highest rate of hyper-inflation, food and fuel shortages and 80 per cent unemployment.
Mr Mugabe addressed the final session of the two-day summit, senior delegates said.
Mr Tsvangirai withdrew from the poll because of the violence. He said Mugabe loyalists had killed 86 of his supporters in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Summit delegates said earlier the leaders were divided between those who wanted a strong statement about Zimbabwe and others who were reluctant to publicly censure Mr Mugabe.
The adopted resolution was submitted by a security troika of SADC comprising Tanzania, Swaziland and Angola, which had called for the vote to be postponed.
Negotiations look like being difficult despite the pressure applied by the summit, which called on the two sides to refrain from action that "may negatively impact on the climate of dialogue."
Mr Mugabe's spokesman rejected ideas being floated for a Kenyan-style power-sharing deal and opposition Secretary-Tendai Biti, who was jailed for two weeks before the vote, said earlier there was no chance of negotiations.
"Kenya is Kenya. Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe. We have our own history of evolving dialogue and resolving political impasses the Zimbabwean way. The Zimbabwean way, not the Kenyan way. Not at all," Mr Mugabe spokesman George Charamba said.
Mr Biti said Mugabe's decision to go ahead with the June 27th election "totally and completely exterminated any prospects of a negotiated settlement."
He added that no talks were taking place between the opposition and ruling ZANU-PF party.