Mugabe ready to work with opposition: Zimbabwe foreign minister

Zimbabwe’s foreign minister has said that President Robert Mugabe is ready to form a unity government with opposition party members. However, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi remained vague on the role that the country's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai might play.

Mumbengegwi said the way forward is for Mugabe to form "an all-inclusive government where all the political parties take part."

He was speaking in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, for a meeting on Monday with the West African nation's president Blaise Compaore. Burkina Faso is a member of the UN Security Council.

In New York, the 15-nation council met on Monday to discuss Zimbabwe. French and US officials said a majority of the Security Council member countries support a proposal to sanction Zimbabwe and freeze Mugabe's assets.

A vote on a US draft resolution calling for sanctions over state-sanctioned election violence in Zimbabwe is expected later this week.

Tsvangirai, meanwhile, has said that he will not participate in talks about forming a governing accord with Mugabe's government unless an additional mediator was appointed besides South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Tsvangirai has called on Mbeki to step down from his mediation role, saying his refusal to publicly criticise Mugabe amounts to appeasement.

In Japan, the Group of Eight leading nations branded Mugabe's recent election illegitimate and promised to take measures against those responsible for the violence that prompted Tsvangirai to pull out of the race.