Brown puts pressure on Mbeki

Afterwards both sides said little about the talks. Asked by reporters as he left Downing Street whether there had been any progress, Mr Mbeki replied with a terse: "I don't know, we will see."

A No 10 spokesman said only that it had been a private meeting with "in depth discussions" on the situation in Zimbabwe as well as other regional and African issues.

The tight-lipped response appeared to reflect Mr Mbeki's acute sensitivity on the issue of Zimbabwe.

Britain wants him to persuade President Robert Mugabe to accept the still-to-be-announced results of the presidential elections and not to resort to violence in an attempt to hang onto power.

As Zimbabwe's most important neighbour and a fellow veteran of Africa's liberation struggles, Mr Mbeki is seen as one of the few world leaders capable of exerting real influence over the 84-year-old Mr Mugabe.

He is, however, highly sensitive to any suggestion that he is following an agenda dictated by Western states such as America or Britain - the old colonial power.

At the Progressive Governance Conference of centre left leaders in Watford on Saturday, he refused to criticise Zimbabwe's conduct of the elections and rejected a call by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change for international intervention to prevent bloodshed.

At the closing press conference he became increasingly exasperated at the repeated questions on the issue, declaring: "Zimbabwe is not a South African province, Can we agree about that?"