Rice calls for Africa to "step up" on Zimbabwe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - African nations must "step up" and help deal with the crisis in Zimbabwe following a post-election deadlock and ongoing chronic food shortages, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.

"It's time for Africa to step up," Rice told a news conference. "Where is the concern from the African Union and from Zimbabwe's neighbors about what is going on in Zimbabwe?"

South Africa has come under strong criticism for not doing enough to help resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, and Washington has been pushing the powerful neighbor to use its leverage.

Rice said it was a matter for Zimbabweans on whether President Robert Mugabe left, but she said the last few years of his rule had been an "abomination."

"I think he's done more harm to his country than would have been imaginable, if you look at what Zimbabwe was just 15 years ago or so," Rice said.

Rice said the United States and the European Union had spoken out about Zimbabwe's troubles, particularly following the disputed March 29 presidential election, the results of which have not been released.

"The region also needs to be, to speak up here," she said. "I've heard from some of outside interference of western powers. Well, all right, then let the AU and SADC (the South African Development Community) have a voice."

Before the election, the United States had already imposed travel and financial sanctions on some 170 people with ties to Mugabe, who is accused of widespread human rights violations and of cracking down hard on the country's opposition. He has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980.

Once viewed as southern Africa's bread basket, Zimbabwe's economy is now in ruins with staggering inflation rates.

"I know the role that he (Mugabe) played in the liberation of Zimbabwe, but the last years have been really an abomination. It's a country that used to feed its neighbors and now it can't feed itself and by all of our accounts, those food aid numbers are going to go up dramatically for Zimbabwe," Rice said.

She said the United States was very concerned about government accusations of treason against Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, adding that the government needed to release the results of the March elections.

"They (the people) need to get the results and there needs to be a peaceful transfer of power, if that's necessitated," she said.

"The longer they hold the results of the election, the more suspicion grows that something is being plotted and planned by the ruling party," she said.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by Patricia Wilson and Vicki Allen)