South Africa's Mbeki to attend Zimbabwe election summit

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki will attend an emergency regional summit aimed at preventing the political crisis over Zimbabwe's disputed elections from erupting into violence.

Ronnie Mamoepa, a spokesman for South Africa's department of foreign affairs, said Mbeki would attend the summit on Saturday in the Zambian capital Lusaka, accompanied by other government officials.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, chairman of the Southern African Development Community, a grouping that includes Zimbabwe, called the summit amid growing fears of bloodshed in the wake of the March 29 elections.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has declared victory for his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the presidential and parliamentary elections, but election officials have failed to release results of the presidential race.

President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF also is challenging some of the parliamentary results, which showed the ruling party losing its majority for the first time.

The political crisis has led to further criticism of Mbeki, who failed in his efforts over the past year to broker an agreement between ZANU-PF and the MDC on how to conduct the elections.

(Reporting by Paul Simao; Editing by Richard Williams)

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