U.S., Britain want U.N. council to tackle Zimbabwe

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States and Britain said on Monday they were determined to push the U.N. Security Council to discuss the worsening situation in Zimbabwe this week, despite strong South African opposition.

Britain accused the government of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe of delaying a the results of the country's March 29 election to try to subvert the outcome.

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he won the election and accuses Mugabe of planning violence to overturn the results.

Zimbabwe "will have to come up" in some form at Wednesday's summit meeting of leaders and top officials from the African Union and Security Council member states, British Ambassador to the United Nations John Sawers told Reuters.

This was confirmed by Douglas Alexander, Britain's minister for international development.

The diplomats spoke after British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in London that Zimbabwean authorities were delaying the election results to allow them time to find an "alternative to the will of the people."

A spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, Benjamin Chang, made clear the United States would also press for a Security Council discussion about Zimbabwe's election.

"We consider the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe as a concern for the international community," he said. "We intend to raise that concern on Wednesday."

Diplomats said several other Western countries were also likely to raise the issue.

South Africa, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation Security Council, opposes putting Zimbabwe on the meeting's agenda, saying the issue has nothing to do with international peace and security.

Although South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said Zimbabwe remained off the official agenda, this does not prevent countries like Britain and the United States from forcing a discussion on the issue by raising it in their statements.

SOUTH AFRICAN RESISTANCE

The Security Council is not expected to take any action against Zimbabwe in the form of a unanimous statement or resolution because of resistance from South Africa and other council members. But any mention of the issue at the meeting will increase the pressure on Mugabe, Western diplomats said.

One diplomat said some discussion of Zimbabwe was inevitable because of what he described as the "failure" of a Southern Africa Development Community summit in Zambia over the weekend, which resisted calls for greater pressure on Mugabe.

South African President Thabo Mbeki played a key role at the weekend meeting, which decided it was better to opt for "quiet diplomacy" and avoid statements that could violate Zimbabwe's sovereignty.

Among the leaders attending the Security Council session, which will be chaired by Mbeki, is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Tanzania and Ivory Coast will also attend.

Avaaz.org, a global advocacy network, said it would urge Mbeki to "support democracy in Zimbabwe" by using an airplane to fly a 3,000 square-foot (280 square-meter) banner over the U.N. that will call on Mbeki to convince Mugabe to "respect the will of his people."

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Chris Wilson)