African summit on Zimbabwe overruns

(Updates with summit overrunning, Tsvangirai speech)

By Shapi Shacinda

LUSAKA, April 13 (Reuters) - A regional summit on Zimbabwe's post-election deadlock overran by several hours on Sunday with southern African leaders apparently unable to reach agreement.

As the summit continued, a state-owned newspaper in Zimbabwe said all votes from both the parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29 would be recounted in a week's time.

The summit of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) had been scheduled to last for three hours but the leaders were still talking after almost eight and the meeting ran into the early hours of Sunday.

It was not clear what was behind the extension but earlier South African President Thabo Mbeki had played down concerns expressed by other nations over the two-week delay in issuing the result of a presidential election on March 29.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, the SADC chairman, called the emergency summit to discuss Zimbabwe after a chorus of international demands for President Robert Mugabe to release the result and fears that the delay could spark violence.

"SADC can no longer continue to stand by and do nothing when one of its members is experiencing political and economic difficulties," said Mwanawasa when the summit opened.

Zimbabwe is experiencing a severe economic crisis and many of its people had hoped the election would draw a line under their deprivation and mark the start of a recovery.

Mugabe did not attend the summit but officials said opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai had addressed the leaders.

Mwanawasa told the 14-nation body: "This summit should focus on helping Zimbabwe to find an answer that genuinely reflects the mood of the people."

Mbeki, who has consistently favoured a softer line with Mugabe, said things were proceeding normally. "I wouldn't describe that as a crisis. It's a normal electoral process in Zimbabwe," Mbeki said after meeting Mugabe in Harare and before flying on to Lusaka.

"We have to wait for ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) to release (the results)," Mbeki told reporters, echoing Mugabe's own stance on the unusually long delay in issuing the result.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change and Western powers say Mugabe is holding back the result so he can prepare for a runoff against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The MDC and human rights groups say he is orchestrating systematic violence to intimidate opposition voters.

Critics of the SADC say its response to Zimbabwe's economic collapse has always been toothless, and Mbeki's position at the head of the region's biggest power seemed to reduce the chances of a decisive summit outcome. Mbeki advocates "quiet diplomacy" and led an unsuccessful SADC attempt last year to mediate between Mugabe and the MDC.



RESULT NOT ANNOUNCED

The opposition won the March 29 parliamentary election and says Tsvangirai also won the presidential poll on the same day.

But no results of that election have been released, stoking MDC charges that Mugabe is planning a violent campaign to reverse the biggest setback of his 28-year rule.

The MDC has gone to court to try to force the ZEC to release the result. A judge has promised a verdict on Monday.

Many Zimbabweans had hoped the vote would begin their recovery from economic misery marked by a near-worthless currency, inflation at more than 100,000 percent, food and fuel shortages and 80 percent unemployment.

Mugabe, aged 84 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, said he was not snubbing the summit, to which he sent three government ministers.

"He (Mbeki) is going to the summit, I'm not ... We're very good friends, very good brothers. But sometimes we also have other business that holds us back," he said.

Mugabe dismissed British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's remark that the world was losing patience. "If Brown is the world, sure, he will lose patience. I know Brown as a little tiny dot on this planet," he said.

Mbeki had talks with Tsvangirai on Thursday but no details were revealed.

Tsvangirai earlier met Jacob Zuma, who ousted Mbeki as leader of the ruling African National Congress last December and now rivals him as South Africa's most powerful man. Zuma joined those calling for the election results to be released.

South African media reports say there is pressure within the ANC to reverse Mbeki's quiet approach in the face of a crisis that has flooded the country with millions of Zimbabwean immigrants.

(Additional reporting by Serena Chaudry in Lusaka, Cris Chinaka, MacDonald Dzirutwe, Nelson Banya, Stella Mapenzauswa, Muchena Zigomo in Harare and Sue Thomas in Johannesburg; Writing by Barry Moody; Editing by Marius Bosch and Tim Pearce)