Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has taken refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare, the Dutch foreign ministry said today.
A foreign ministry spokesman confirmed a report that Mr Tsvangirai had spent the night in the Dutch embassy but had not requested asylum. He said Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen had said if he needed security he was welcome to stay.
Mr Tsvangirai withdrew from a June 27th presidential run-off vote on Sunday, saying his Movement for Democratic Change supporters would be risking their lives it they cast their votes.
He said today he was ready to negotiate with President Robert Mugabe's ruling party after his withdrawal from a presidential election, but only if political violence stopped.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said tonight that Mr Tsvangirai's decision to withdraw was "understandable".
Speaking to reporters after meeting members of the UN Security Council, Mr Ban also said he strongly discouraged the government of President Robert Mugabe from holding the second-round election on Friday as scheduled.
"I would like to take this moment to say how distressed I am by the events leading to the understandable decision of the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw from the run-off election scheduled for this Friday," Mr Ban said.
"There has been too much violence and too much intimidation," he said. "A vote held in these conditions would lack all legitimacy."
Earlier today, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed those views. The attacks on the opposition have "reinforced that it's impossible for there to be a free, fair or peaceful election in Zimbabwe on June 27," Ms Rice said.
Amid mounting concern from within and outside Africa over the violence, in which Mr Tsvangirai says around 90 of his supporters have died, the MDC leader told South Africa's Radio 702: "We are prepared to negotiate with Zanu-PF but of course it is important that certain principles are accepted before the negotiations take place. One of the preconditions is that this violence against the people must be stopped."
Mr Mugabe (84), who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has vowed never to hand over to the opposition, branding them puppets of the West. He denies his supporters are responsible for the violence.
The MDC has appealed to the international community, particularly the African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) to put pressure on Mr Mugabe to resolve an economic and political crisis which has sent millions of refugees fleeing into neighbouring countries.
Reaction was swift from Jean Ping, the AU's top diplomat. "This development and the increasing acts of violence in the run-up to the second round of the presidential election, are a matter of grave concern to the Commission of the AU," he said in a statement.
Mr Ping said he had started consultations with AU chairman Jakaya Kikwete, the president of Tanzania, with SADC and with that body's designated mediator in the crisis, South African President Thabo Mbeki, to see what could be done.
Mr Ping said Zimbabwe was at a critical point and called for restraint and an end to violence.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged the United Nations to hold a "full discussion" on the issue at today's Security Council session.
Angola's foreign ministry said today that SADC foreign ministers were meeting in Luanda to discuss the Zimbabwe crisis and might issue a statement later in the day.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, the current SADC chairman, said yesterday the run-off must be postponed "to avert a catastrophe in this region." He said the Zimbabwe situation was "of tremendous embarrassment to all of us."
Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande said a SADC security troika of Angola, Swaziland and Tanzania would propose the next move by the regional body.
But the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said it was still looking forward to a credible electoral process on Friday.
"I don't believe that the level of violence in the country is such that a credible election is impossible. We don't have a war. We will be able to hold credible elections," ZEC chairman George Chiweshe told African election monitors in Harare.
Mr Tsvangirai beat Mr Mugabe in a March 29th vote but failed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot.