World News Story

08 January 2009 21:50 BST

President Mugabe pulls out of key election summit

Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe will not attend a key meeting this weekend aimed at resolving the two-week election crisis that has gripped the country.

A government spokesman today confirmed that Mr Mugabe will not be attending the one-day summit in Lusaka, Zambia, organised by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The meeting had been called by the SADC to help resolve the situation in Zimbabwe, where the results of the March 29th presidential election are still unknown.

Asked why Mr Mugabe would not be attending the meeting, the spokesman said: "Why would he go? What would he go as? What could he answer?"

Meanwhile, the president's rival and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party Morgan Tsvangirai has announced that he plans on attending.

Earlier Zimbabwe authorities banned all political rallies in the country's capital Harare, claiming there were insufficient police officers available to marshal any demonstrations.

State media also said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission would not release any results from the presidential election until the high court had decided whether it could be compelled to do so.

The MDC have previously claimed that its leader Mr Tsvangirai had won 50.3 per cent of the national vote and yesterday the party announced he would not accept a second round of voting against Mr Mugabe.