Africa, not U.N. council, key for Zimbabwe: China

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The political crisis in Zimbabwe after last week's widely criticized election is one that Africa should be managing, not the U.N. Security Council, China's special representative for Africa said on Tuesday.

"It is an African problem," Liu Guijin told reporters.

He added that it was important to hear from African Union leaders currently holding a summit in Egypt what they wanted to do about Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe was re-elected in a run-off election last week that many African and world leaders criticized as unfair.

Liu did not say whether China was prepared to use its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to block a U.S. draft resolution outlining U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe.

"That is a pre-judgment," he said in response to a question about a possible Chinese veto. He did not elaborate.

Council diplomats have said China, Russia and South Africa oppose the U.S. draft text, which Washington plans to circulate to all members of the 15-nation Security Council later this week.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau, editing by Jackie Frank)