Zimbabwe: Mugabe's rivals beg Africa to step in and avert a bloodbath

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Party leaders accused president Robert Mugabe of trying to provoke violence as a pretext for a state of emergency - and to intimidate his opponents ahead of a likely run-off election.

The claims came amid growing reports that ruling party thugs were escalating their invasions of white-owned farms.

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Tendai Biti: The secretary general of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has called for other African nations to help the stricken country

Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, appealed to African states to act, saying: "I say to my brothers and sisters across the continent - don't wait for dead bodies in the streets of Harare.

"There is a constitutional and legal crisis in Zimbabwe."

He said the ruling ZANU-PF party had launched a violent campaign against their supporters following a stalemate over March 29 elections.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he won the presidential vote and should be declared president-immediately, ending Mugabe's 28-year rule.

But ZANU-PF is pressing for a delay in issuing the presidential results pending a recount, and is also alleging abuses by electoral officials.

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Campaign posters on a street in Harare: Zimbabwe is still in a state of crisis after the elections

Earlier, a farmers' union said that veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war - used as political shock troops by Mugabe - had evicted more than 60 mostly white farmers since the weekend.

Mugabe's information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said the union was lying, and added that there had been no outbreak of violence in the country.

"There is nothing like that," he added. "They are concocting things. It is peaceful."

The High Court has begun hearing arguments in a case brought by the MDC to force the release of the election result.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission to release the election results "expeditiously and with transparency".