UN chief urges Mugabe to resolve Zimbabwe's crisis

Zimbabwe: The political crisis in Zimbabwe has lasted far too long and President Robert Mugabe must resolve the power-sharing impasse, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, a prominent Zimbabwean women's activist group said its jailed leaders will join a nationwide prayer vigil for an end to the crisis.

The U.N. chief has been discussing Zimbabwe's crisis with other leaders and dispatched his senior adviser to Harare. On Wednesday he told reporters in the Philippines that the crisis "has been taking too long." "I sincerely hope that President Mugabe will no longer disappoint the international community," Ban said. "He should meet the expectations of the international community."

Zimbabweans themselves were showing increasing impatience - and willingness to say so despite the Mugabe regime's record of cracking down violently on dissent. They want their leaders to come to a political agreement and turn their attention to the economic crisis.

Zimbabweans face the world's highest official inflation rate, and the U.N. predicts half of them will need food aid by next year.

Ban said he hoped a planned regional summit could break the impasse over the allocation of Cabinet posts among Mugabe's party, Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change and a smaller opposition group.

Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, of trying to hold on to too many of the most powerful posts, despite agreeing Sept. 15 to share power.

Harare,

Wednesday, AP