PM urges sanctions against Mugabe

The Prime Minister said the campaign of violence and intimidation against the opposition by President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party had made it impossible for a "free and fair" vote to take place.

In a Commons statement, he said Britain would now be pressing for fresh sanctions against Mr Mugabe's inner circle - including travel bans and the freezing of financial assets held abroad.

His intervention came as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai took refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare following a police raid on the offices of his Movement for Democratic Change in the Zimbabwean capital.

Mr Tsvangirai announced on Sunday he was pulling out of Friday's run-off for the presidential election, citing the killings, rapes, and beatings being meted out to his supporters. Britain said it fully understood and supported his decision.

"The regime has made it impossible to hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. State-sponsored terror and intimidation has put the opposition in an untenable position," Mr Brown told MPs.

The Prime Minister said that no nation should be prepared to recognise Mr Mugabe's regime as the legitimate government of Zimbabwe.

He urged the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to work with the UN to send a mission to Zimbabwe to try to establish a way forward.

Earlier, Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown told reporters in London that there had to be some form of mediated resolution to the crisis. He said Britain would now be seeking the widest possible international rejection of the election results.

Under the Zimbabwean constitution, he pointed out, the run-off in the disputed election should have been held within a month of the original vote last March.