U.N. council agrees to condemn Zimbabwe: diplomats

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council agreed on Monday to condemn the violence in Zimbabwe and declare that a free and fair run-off election was impossible because of the turmoil and restrictions on the opposition, diplomats said.

They said the text, obtained by Reuters, had been agreed among envoys of the council's 15 member states, though Russia and one other country were awaiting final approval from their capitals.

If adopted by the U.N. council, it will be its first formal action on the crisis.

The text was watered down from an earlier version, which had the council explicitly blaming President Robert Mugabe's government for the crisis and saying opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai would be the legitimate leader if a credible run-off election, planned for Friday, cannot be held.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau, Editing by Chris Wilson)