Defiant Mugabe refuses to bow to world pressure

Tsvangirai told the Dutch national broadcaster NOS radio Tuesday that the Dutch ambassador had spoken to the Zimbabwean government and received assurances there was no threat. Tsvangirai said he might leave the embassy Tuesday or Wednesday.

But the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, said Tsvangirai should be wary of government assurances and that violence was escalating against the opposition as election day approaches.

"There's really nothing that we can do in the international community to stop these elections," McGee told reporters, adding that the embassy expected Mugabe militants to force voters to go to the polls Friday, and to attack anyone who does not.

McGee said the Southern African Development Community, and South Africa as a leading member of that bloc, should speak out with words as "firm and as hard-hitting" as Monday's U.N. Security Council statement.

Zimbabwe's neighbors may have more influence than the U.N., McGee said, adding that Zimbabwe is a landlocked country and vulnerable to actions such as border closings.

"Regional bodies have tremendous influence," McGee said. "There are so many things that could be brought to bear, that could have a tremendous, immediate impact on the government of Zimbabwe."

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who has been trying to broker an agreement, said Tuesday that South African President Thabo Mbeki was trying to persuade Mugabe and Tsvangirai to share power in a transitional government with Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister.

Wade was also proposing that Tsvangirai take a position junior to Mugabe's, but not that the coalition be considered merely transitional.

Neither proposal appeared to have been embraced by the rivals--Tsvangirai has insisted he be president and Mugabe have no role.

The Times of London report said Britain had drawn up two separate contingency plans for military action, one to resolve a humanitarian crisis and the other to evacuate British nationals. The Ministry of Defense said it has no current plans for deploying troops, but declined to discuss whether contingency plans had been drawn up.