SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – African Union observers condemned Zimbabwe’s one-man election as undemocratic yesterday, intensifying pressure on Robert Mugabe as he faced his peers after a vote much of the world has dismissed as a farce.

Mugabe was attending an African summit in Egypt a day after being sworn in as president amid growing calls for the continent’s leaders to act to resolve the crisis which some fear could destabilise southern Africa.

Washington announced that it was preparing to present a draft sanctions resolution to the UN Security Council and urged African leaders to listen to their own election observers, warning the pan-African bloc’s credibility was at stake.

“The vote fell short of the African Union’s standards of democratic elections,” the AU observers said in a statement issued in Harare as their leaders met in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

“The African Union observer mission is however encouraged that both parties have shown willingness to engage in constructive dialogue as a way forward for ensuring peace, stability and development in Zimbabwe,” they added.

Some African leaders demanded tough action against Mugabe. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga called for his suspension from the African Union until he allows a free and fair election.

But the continent’s longest serving head of state, Gabonese President Omar Bongo, insisted that African leaders should accept Mugabe’s poll victory.

“He was elected, he took an oath, and he is here with us, so he is president and we cannot ask him more,” Bongo told reporters.

Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a sixth term after being declared the winner of Friday’s election runoff with more than 85 per cent of the vote in a race boycotted by opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai because of deadly violence and voter intimidation.

The United States’ top envoy for Africa said she was sure that African leaders were taking a much tougher line with Mugabe in private than their public statements suggested.

“I do believe that the tradition of an AU summit is to reserve their strongest criticism for closed door sessions, particularly at the head of state level,” Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer told reporters.

“I would suggest not to take the soft words of the opening plenary as a reflection of the deep concern of the leaders here for the situation in Zimbabwe. I would expect them to have very, very strong words with him.”

The US ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said he was preparing to circulate a draft sanctions resolution among Security Council members and was “cautiously optimistic” it would be approved.

“The United States is consulting with others to introduce a resolution perhaps this week to impose focused sanctions on the regime,” he said.

Italy announced that it was recalling its ambassador to Harare as a “political signal” of its disapproval of the regime.

But Frazer acknowledged that there had been a “mixed reception” from African states to US sanctions calls.

“Some support sanctions, some support very strong sanctions, other delegations are concerned that sanctions may hurt the population,” she said.

Without making any reference to the United States, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said that “sanctions are not the best tool that modern diplomacy has at its disposal.”

With no consensus among the AU’s 53 member states on tough action against Mugabe, the bloc focussed its efforts on pushing for a power-sharing arrangement between his ZANU-PF party and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change before adjourning to resume talks on Tuesday.

“Both ZANU-PF and the MDC must work together and unite the country and its peoples behind efforts to find a common solution to their national problems,” the South African foreign ministry said.

“In this regard ZANU-PF and the MDC must enter into negotiations which will lead to the formation of a transitional government that can extricate Zimbabwe from its current political challenges.”

On the summit sidelines, MDC spokesman George Sibotshiwe called for the AU to appoint a full-time envoy to Zimbabwe in a move that would effectively sideline South African President Thabo Mbeki’s much-criticised mediation efforts on behalf of the Southern African Development Community.

Sibotshiwe said the crisis now had ramifications for the continent as a whole and was too big a task for Mbeki on his own.

“We want an AU envoy who is a permanent mediator between the MDC and ZANU-PF to assist President Mbeki,” he said.