Mugabe agrees to attend election summit

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and his main rival will both attend an emergency summit of southern African leaders called over the country's crisis.

Deputy information minister Bright Matonga confirmed Mugabe would be at the meeting.

"If there is a meeting of heads of state, then obviously he will attend," he said.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won last month's presidential election outright, and accused Mugabe of delaying the results so he can rig a second ballot.

But the MDC announced today that Mr Tsvangirai would not stand if Mugabe does try to declare another vote.

"We won the presidential election hands down, without the need for a runoff," MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti said.

Zimbabwe's electoral commission has still not announced the results 12 days since the election. The country's High Court will rule on Monday if it should be compelled to do so.

But with no resolution in sight, the emergency summit was called by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa.

Zimbabwean information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the meeting was not necessary. "There is no crisis in Zimbabwe that warrants a special meeting on Zimbabwe," he said.

Mr Tsvangirai also will also attend the summit, said an MDC spokesman.

"He is a head of state himself as well," he said, reiterating the opposition's insistence that Mr Tsvangirai won the election.

Mr Tsvangirai, who is touring southern Africa seeking support, headed to South Africa today to meet President Thabo Mbeki.

He will go to Zambia tomorrow in advance of the summit.

Mr Biti said regional leaders should push for Mugabe's resignation.

"We don't know why the world has to wait until dead bodies start littering the streets of Harare," he said.

Meanwhile the Catholic Church in southern Africa today called for the appointment of a high-level mediator in Zimbabwe, citing the role former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan played in negotiating Kenya's electoral crisis as an example.

Mr Mugabe has virtually conceded he did not win the election and appears to be campaigning for a runoff by intimidating his foes and fanning racial tensions.

Mr Biti accused him of deploying senior army and police officials across the country to "oversee the reversal process."

Desmond Mufunde, a newly elected MDC councilman from the rural Gweru district, said soldiers attacked some people in his district last weekend.

Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers' Union accused ruling party supporters of forcing dozens of white farmers off their land and ransacking their homes.

Farmers warned that continued chaos could endanger the wheat crop, vital to a nation that has grown deeply dependent on food aid during the worsening economic crisis.