'The West can scream all it wants, elections will go on,' says Mugabe

He spoke out as African leaders called for Friday's election to be postponed.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years, said: 'The West can scream all it wants. Those who want to recognise our legitimacy can do so, those who don't want, should not.'

Penalty? Robert Mugabe kicks a football around at a campaign rally in Banket, west of Harare, on Tuesday

Mugabe said he would not refuse to negotiate with Mr Tsvangirai but the vote, which now appears certain to re-elect him as President, could not be called off.

"For now there is only one thing for us to accomplish...it's the legal process on the 27th of June," said the 84-year-old Mugabe.

There were words of ridicule too for Mr Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change leader who is still sheltering in the Dutch Embassy amid fears for his life at the hands of Mugabe's henchmen.

Morgan Tsvangirai said he was fleeing troops when he took refuge in the Dutch embassy

He said today he would leave his refuge in the next 48 hours after reassurances about his safety - but Mugabe told a rally in western Zimbabwe: "Tsvangirai is frightened. He has run to seek refuge at the Dutch embassy. What for?

"These are voters, they will do you no harm. Political harm, yes, because they will vote against you. No one wants to kill Tsvangirai".

Zimbabwe's UN ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku also poured scorn on Mr Tsvangirai, describing him as a "cry baby" and claiming: "He has been free to move wherever he wanted to move."

Many people in Zimbabwe still do not know the MDC leader has pulled out the race as official media barely ever mention him in a campaign which has seen some 200 MDC supporters killed and 200,000 driven from their homes.

Despite Mugabe's defiance, key allies appeared to be beginning to turn against him yesterday a day after the UN Security Council, in an unprecedented move, unanimously agreed to condemn the violence in Zimbabwe and declared  a fair election would be "impossible."

Significantly, South Africa's governing ANC accused Mugabe's administration of "riding roughshod" over democracy and stressing it did not believe free and fair elections were possible. 

ANC leader Jacob Zuma, who rivals Thabo Mbeki as South Africa's most powerful man, called for urgent intervention by the U.N. and regional body SADC (Southern African Development Community).

"The situation in Zimbabwe has gone out of hand, out of control," he said. " We cannot agree with what (the ruling) ZANU-PF is doing.

"The ANC says the run-off is no longer a solution, you need a political arrangement first ... then elections down the line," he said.

A Tsvangirai supporter holds a card containing Zimbabwean currency - billions of dollars so worthless they cannot buy food

His party went further in a statement saying there was compelling evidence of violence, intimidation and "outright terror." It said free and fair elections were impossible and called on Mugabe's government "to take up the challenge of finding a negotiated settlement to the current impasse."

President Mbeki, the designated regional mediator in the crisis, has resisted calls to use Pretoria's powerful economic leverage over landlocked Zimbabwe and has adopted a much criticised policy of "soft diplomacy."

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade too said yesterday the election must be postponed, adding that Mr Tsvangirai took refuge after being tipped off that soldiers were on the way to his house.

"He is only safe because, alerted by friends, he left in a hurry a few minutes earlier," Mr Wade added.

American ambassador to Harare James McGee said the Southern African Development Community must declare both the election and Mugabe's government illegitimate.

US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the international community will reject any attempt by Mugabe to declare himself president if he goes ahead with a planned run-off election.

"If the election takes place and Mugabe stands up there and declares himself president again on the basis of that, I think it's going to be uniformly rejected by the international community," he said.

 Mugabe has repeatedly accused Britain, its former colonial ruler, and other Western countries of lying about the violence because they want to interfere in the election.