Mugabe Hailed as "Hero" At African Summitt

Robert Mugabe was hailed a "hero" by Africa's longest-serving head of state as he joined his fellow leaders at an African Union summit.

The 84-year-old flew to the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh only hours after being sworn in for his sixth presidential term following a one-candidate election run-off widely decried as at best a sham, at worst a travesty of democracy.

He entered the conference hall accompanied by the leaders of Egypt, Tanzania - the AU chairman - and Uganda, and his enemies' hopes that he would be disowned by his peers were quickly dashed.

"He was elected, he took an oath, and he is here with us, so he is President and we cannot ask him more," said Omar Bongo, President of Gabon since 1967. "He conducted elections and I think he won."

But, instead of heeding that message from the outside world, Mr Bongo said that African leaders were able to decide for themselves. "We have even received Mugabe as a hero," he told reporters. "We understand the attacks (by the international community) but this is not the way they should react. What they've done is, in our opinion, a little clumsy, and we think they could have consulted us (the AU) first."

At today's summit, Asha-Rose Migiro, the former Tanzanian foreign minister who is Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, called the situation in Zimbabwe an "extremely grave crisis". She added: "This is a moment of truth for regional leaders."

But there was no sign that Mr Mugabe's fellow leaders would break rank to question Mr Mugabe's legitimacy or ratchet up the pressure on him to negotiate some sort of political accommodation with Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean opposition leader.