Mugabe to confront critics at African Union summit

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will confront his critics at a summit of the African Union on Monday, fresh from victory in a one-candidate election which observers said was scarred by violence and intimidation.

Heads of state of the body, meeting in Egypt, are likely to press him to enter talks with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to end political crisis in a country whose economy, wrecked by hyperinflation, has produced millions of refugees.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged support for international action against Mugabe's government, including U.N.-authorized sanctions and an arms embargo.

But the AU seems reluctant to back calls for sanctions, favoring instead a Kenyan-style power-sharing transition.

In an apparent response to pressure for talks, Mugabe said in an inaugural speech on Sunday he was committed to dialogue with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Tsvangirai has said his party is also committed to AU-sponsored talks, although no negotiations have started. But he added he would ask the AU not to recognize Mugabe's re-election.

The MDC said the AU should not welcome Mugabe at the summit.

"I don't think it would be right for the African Union to welcome him after all he has done," Thokozani Khupe, MDC vice president, said in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.