Southern Africa leaders start Zimbabwe summit

By Serena Chaudhry

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Southern African nations began an emergency summit on Zimbabwe's election deadlock on Saturday but South Africa's Thabo Mbeki said there was no crisis.

Zambia, which called the meeting of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), expressed concern about the situation in its neighbour, where a long delay in issuing presidential poll results has raised fears of violence.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe did not attend the summit.

"This summit should focus on helping Zimbabwe to find an answer that genuinely reflects the mood of the people," said SADC chairman and Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa in his opening remarks.

"SADC can no longer continue to stand by and do nothing when one of its members is experiencing political and economic difficulties."

President Mbeki, the most powerful leader at the summit, advocates "quiet diplomacy" in Zimbabwe and seemed not to share the regional and international concern over the impasse.

"I wouldn't describe that as a crisis. It's a normal electoral process in Zimbabwe. We have to wait for ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) to release (the results)," Mbeki told reporters after meeting Mugabe for an hour.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition won a parliamentary election on March 29 and says its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, also won a presidential poll on the same day.