Mediator Mbeki meets Mugabe on Zimbabwe crisis

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - South African leader Thabo Mbeki and President Robert Mugabe held talks on Friday on Zimbabwe's election crisis ahead of a possible run-off that has raised fears violence could escalate.

Mbeki, whose softly-softly mediation in Zimbabwe's crisis has drawn criticism at home and abroad, met Mugabe for three hours. Their talks came a day before the opposition MDC was to announce whether it would take part in a second round.

Western powers have called on African states to do more to end the stalemate, which has dashed hopes that the election would usher in a new era of prosperity and more freedoms.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned the presidents of three southern African states -- Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania -- on Friday to urge them to help end the Zimbabwe deadlock.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack did not say why Rice did not telephone Mbeki.

Regional heavyweight South Africa is heading efforts by the regional grouping SADC to defuse the tension in Zimbabwe, which suffers from 80 percent unemployment, chronic food and fuel shortages and the world's highest inflation of 165,000 percent.

But Mbeki has lost credibility as lead mediator.

"He (Mbeki) came to get a briefing as mediator. He has come to get an on the spot understanding of developments on the ground," Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told reporters.