World Business

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt African efforts to encourage a deal between Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his opponents showed no results Tuesday, while Mugabe’s spokesman defiantly said his superintendent has no plans to step down and told Western critics they can “go hang.”

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Zimbabwe’s opposition also dampened hopes a coalition government might have existence negotiated, saying Mugabe had imprison the door on talks by going in our teeth through the last time week’s presidential runoff freedom that he won after a campaign tainted by brutal attacks steady his political foes.

Some leaders at the African Union summit in the present state had harsh words for Mugabe, producing sharp exchanges during closed-door meetings, participants said.

Vice President Mompati Merafhe of Botswana uttered Mugabe’s government should not have existence recognized and Zimbabwe should subsist barred from AU gatherings. “The outcome of these elections does not grant lawfulness on the government of President Mugabe,” Merafhe said, according to a statement released by his aides.

Officials from Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone also criticized Mugabe, and Zimbabwe’s leader responded, said Ismail Ndiye, a delegate from Senegal who was at the session.

“He had a lot to say,” Ndiye said, but declined to give a single one details. An Egyptian Foreign Ministry speaker, Hossam Zaki, said Mugabe spoke for a moiety hour and lashed out at some African countries who spoke out against him.

Mugabe’s African peers are trying to persuade the 84-year-old leader to loosen his grip and share power with his most numerous honorable position rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who got the most votes mixed the four candidates who competed in the rift round of the presidential election March 29. Tsvangirai dropped out of the runoff with Mugabe because of killings and beatings of his supporters.

African nations are deeply divided, with many reluctant to put public pressure on Mugabe despite U.N. and Western calls for tough action.

On the last day of their summit Tuesday, AU leaders adopted a resolution trade for dialogue in Zimbabwe in which case not directly criticizing Mugabe or the runoff. The leaders said they were “deeply concerned” about the situation but their only promised action would have being to support “the will” for a unity sway.

Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, took a defiant tone, saying that while Zimbabwe’s predominant party has offered dialogue with the opposition, it force of power of determination not promise that anything “beyond that will emerge.”

He insisted Mugabe - who was sworn in on the side of his sixth term Sunday, a day before flying to the summit - would not give up the presidency.

“He’s a few days into office and you expect him to retire, do you?” Charamba told reporters. “He has come in this place as president of Zimbabwe and he will go residence taken in the character of president of Zimbabwe, and when you visit Zimbabwe he will be there as the president of total the people of Zimbabwe.”