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Sharm Al Shaikh: African leaders are convening in Egypt on Monday in a summit that will likely be dominated by the political situation in Zimbabwe.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak opened the two-day closed-door summit held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm Al Shaikh with newly re-elected Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in attendance.
Mugabe was sworn in for another five-year term on Sunday in a widely condemned electoral process.
The African Union meeting will see heads of state press Mugabe to begin negotiations with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who pulled out of the run-off election last week citing increasing political violence.
Leaders will call upon a victorious Mugabe to end the political crisis in the country that has wrecked the economy and produced millions of refugees.
Internationally, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged for greater support for further UN-authorised sanctions against Mugabe’s government.
However, the AU seems reluctant to back calls for sanctions, following a Kenyan-style power-sharing transition instead.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has called for the AU to bar Mugabe from the summit.
"I don't think it would be right for the African Union to welcome him after all he has done," MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe said in Sharm Al Shaikh in Egypt, the summit venue.
A stiff Mugabe critic, Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga was quoted on Sunday as saying the AU should deploy troops.
"What is happening in Zimbabwe is a shame and an embarrassment to Africa in the eyes of the international community and should be denounced," he said.
But the summit may be split between critics of Mugabe, like Kenya, and opponents of any action against him led by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been widely criticised for not taking a harsh enough stance with Mugabe.
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