Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday joined an African Union summit where he will be under pressure to negotiate with the opposition after winning a one-candidate election condemned by monitors as unfair and violent.
Mugabe, 84, flew to Egypt overnight soon after being sworn in for a new term, extending his unbroken rule since independence from Britain in 1980. He entered the summit conference hall in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh with the leaders of Egypt, Tanzania - the AU chairman - and Uganda.
As Mugabe arrived, regional power South Africa called for his ZANU-PF and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC to enter talks on a transitional government. Tsvangirai withdrew from Friday's ballot because of attacks on his supporters. Pretoria is the designated southern African mediator in Zimbabwe although President Thabo Mbeki has been widely accused of being too soft on Mugabe. The statement was the first time South Africa has publicly called for a unity government and could indicate the line that the African Union will take.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi took a similar stance on Sunday. "There has to be some sort of negotiations between the parties," he said. "If not, polarisation will be the result." Zimbabwe's crisis has ruined a once prosperous country, saddling it with the world's worst hyper-inflation and straining neighbouring nations, especially South Africa, with a flood of millions of economic refugees.
All eyes will be on how Mugabe is received at the summit after calls from Western powers, human rights groups and the opposition for African leaders to reject him as illegitimate. Seen by many on the continent as a liberation hero, Mugabe is accustomed to standing ovations at African meetings.
But his decision to go ahead with the election after Tsvangirai's withdrawal provoked unprecedented African criticism. Tsvangirai pulled out because of violence in which he said nearly 90 of his followers were killed.
Monitors from both Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Pan-African parliament said the vote was undermined by violence and did not reflect the will of the people. African Union observers said it fell short of AU standards. Indications ahead of the summit suggested the leaders would reject strong Western calls for hefty new sanctions on Zimbabwe and press instead for talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
Some of the leaders favour a power-sharing deal modelled on the one the ended a bloody post-election crisis in Kenya earlier this year in which 1,500 people died. Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai say they are ready for African-sponsored talks although a tough question remains over who would lead a unity government.
Tsvangirai called on the summit leaders not to recognise Mugabe's re-election, after electoral officials said he won more than 85 percent of the vote, in which he was the only candidate. "We want them (the AU) to say the 27 (June) election is illegitimate," he told Dutch public television.