AU security chief plays down Zimbabwe troops talk

By Cynthia Johnston and Daniel Wallis

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - The African Union's (AU) peace and security chief played down the prospects on Sunday of sending peacekeepers to Zimbabwe after a widely condemned election which African observers said was unfair.

Zimbabwe's opposition, Kenya's prime minister and rights campaigners have called for AU forces to be deployed after President Robert Mugabe pushed ahead with a one-candidate vote on Friday in defiance of international opinion. The election was dismissed as a sham by much of the world.

"It's not easy to send a peacekeeping mission anywhere, and usually the sending of peacekeepers is the result of negotiations, the result of a peace plan to be implemented," AU peace and security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra told reporters ahead of an AU summit in Egypt.

"I am not sure that the situation in Zimbabwe corresponds to that particular situation."

Mugabe, who is expected to be sworn in as president on Sunday, plans to attend the summit where his country's crisis looked sure to overshadow the official theme of water and sanitation. African leaders are seen as having more sway than the West with Mugabe.

Another senior AU official told Reuters: "We are still at the stage of whether we are even going to discuss Zimbabwe or not ... nowhere near talking about peacekeepers."

Critics are calling for action to end Mugabe's 28-year rule after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential run-off, citing violence against his supporters.

Observers from the Pan-African Parliament, one of the few groups able to monitor Friday's ballot, said the vote was so flawed it should be rerun.

ELECTION CRISIS "EMBARRASSMENT"

On Sunday, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga -- a former opposition leader -- called for AU troops to resolve a crisis that he said had become an "embarrassment" to the continent. His country's grand coalition government has been touted as a possible model to resolve Zimbabwe's turmoil.

Post-election violence in Kenya killed some 1,500 people and uprooted 300,000 more earlier this year.

"What we want is just to have another election (in Zimbabwe) which will be fairly organised," Kenya's state minister for planning Wycliffe Oparanya said on the sidelines of the AU meeting in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"But of course if there will be trouble in that country, then it will necessitate sending a peace force."

On Saturday, U.S. President George W. Bush said he would ask for more sanctions against what he called Mugabe's "illegitimate" government. The AU's top diplomat, Jean Ping, has said he is sure the pan-African body could sort out the crisis, but needed time.

Lamamra, a former Algerian ambassador to the United Nations, said he hoped Zimbabwe's woes would be solved without sanctions.