Tsvangirai has dismissed the re-election of Mugabe, citing a campaign of violence [AFP]

Mugabe arrived in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh on Monday to attend the summit, a day after he was sworn in for a sixth term.

He was declared the winner after Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) withdrew because of violence in the run-up to the vote.

Tsvangirai has called the election a "sham" and Mugabe's inauguration a "meaningless exercise".

'Transitional government' call

As the summit got under way, South Africa urged Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the MDC to hold talks towards the formation of a transitional government.

"Both Zanu-PF and the MDC must work together and unite the country and its peoples behind efforts to find a common solution to their national problems," South Africa's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"In this regard Zanu-PF and the MDC must enter into negotiations which will lead to the formation of a transitional government that can extricate Zimbabwe from its current political challenges."

A 40-strong AU delegation which travelled to Zimbabwe for the election added their criticisms as the Zimbabwean president attended Monday's summit.

The AU mission's report said that the actual polling process on Friday had proceeded peacefully and "in accordance with the electoral laws of Zimbabwe".

But it then said that "violence in the run-down to the elections" combined with "the fear of violence [which] deterred popular participation in the electoral process" and the lack of "equitable access to the public media" had rendered the poll undemocratic.

"It is the considered view of the African Union observer mission that the election process fell short of the accepted AU standards," the report said.

'Elders' criticism

A group of international statesmen has called on the AU to declare the results of Friday’s election "illegitimate".

Mugabe has called for dialogue in the wake of his re-election [AFP]

"We ask that they [African leaders] clearly state that the results of the June 27 elections in Zimbabwe are illegitimate for they occurred under the cloud of targeted political violence, precipitating the withdrawal of one of the two candidates," the team said.

The 'Elders' group is made up of retired leaders such Jimmy Carter, a former US president, Mary Robinson, a former Irish head of state, and Desmond Tutu, a South African cleric and Nobel peace laureate.

"The African election observers left no doubt: the elections were neither free nor fair," the group said.

During his swearing-in speech on Sunday, Mugabe called for dialogue while praising the widely-criticised efforts of Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, to mediate the crisis.

"It is my hope that sooner rather than later, we shall as diverse political parties hold consultations towards such serious dialogue as will minimise our difference and enhance the area of unity and co-operation," Mugabe said.

So far the 53-member AU has pushed for a power-sharing arrangement between Zanu-PF and the MDC.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has been leading mediation efforts to resolve the crisis, "are in consultation to put a text to the summit on how to end the Zimbabwe crisis, notably power-sharing possibilities," a source close to the AU's Commission said on Sunday.

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