Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said today he would support international intervention to stabilise Zimbabwe and called on the African Union to unite in rejecting president Robert Mugabe's new administration.
"I think that a very good argument can be made for having an international force to restore peace," he told a BBC interviewer.
"If you were to have a unanimous voice, saying quite clearly to Mr Mugabe ... you are illegitimate and we will not recognise your administration in any shape or form - I think that would be a very, very powerful signal and would really strengthen the hand of the international community," Tutu said.
The West stepped up calls yesterday for action to end Mr Mugabe's 28-year rule after he went ahead with Friday's presidential run-off despite opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's withdrawal.
But although a number of African leaders have voiced disquiet with Mr Mugabe in the past few days, foreign ministers preparing for the African Union summit in Egypt tomorrow suggested the AU would not support Western calls for sanctions.
Mr Mugabe (84), accused by the West and the opposition of being responsible for Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis, has said he would go to the summit to challenge African leaders who had been critical of him about their own behaviour in power.
Mr Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a March 29th presidential poll but failed to win the absolute majority required to avoid a run-off, according to the Electoral Commission's results.
He withdrew from the run-off a week ago and took refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare, saying almost 90 of his supporters had been killed by militias loyal to Mr Mugabe.
Government sources said yesterday Mr Mugabe, a former guerrilla leader who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, seemed to be heading for a big election win.
On Friday, witnesses and election monitors reported that in many areas people did not go to the polls. They said people in some places had been forced to vote for Mr Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai said millions stayed away from polling stations despite systematic intimidation.
Some AU foreign ministers preparing for tomorrow's summit said a power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe should be encouraged.
AU mediation helped form a power-sharing government in Kenya earlier this year, ending a crisis in which 1,500 were killed.
"I think we need to engage Zimbabwe. The route of sanctions may not be the helpful one," Kenyan foreign minister Moses Wetangula told reporters.
Mr Tsvangirai said last week he would not negotiate with Mugabe if he went ahead with Friday's election.
South African president Thabo Mbeki has shown no sign of changing his policy of quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe as the designated regional mediator or using South Africa's considerable economic leverage with its landlocked neighbour.
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it would lobby the AU to take a firm position for a change of government in Zimbabwe.
"We should not wait for rivers of blood and the complete breakdown of order," said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
"President Mbeki has become part of the problem ... I don't know why he is trying to resurrect a regime that was rejected by the people," said Chamisa.
Zimbabwe has descended into economic chaos with hyper-inflation estimated to have hit at least 2 million per cent and scarce supplies of food and fuel.
Mr Mugabe, who blames Western sanctions for the economic woes and the opposition for violence, accuses his African critics of playing into the hands of what he calls Britain's attempt to recolonise Zimbabwe.
"The Mugabe regime held a sham election," said US president George W. Bush, adding Washington would impose new sanctions as well as urge the UN Security Council to implement a travel ban on Zimbabwean officials and an arms embargo.
British prime minister Gordon Brown said yesterday the situation in Zimbabwe had reached a new low. "We will work with international partners to find a way to close this sickening chapter that has cost so many lives," he said.