SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT - AFRICAN leaders on Tuesday called for dialogue between Zimbabwe's political foes and a national unity government following President Robert Mugabe's widely discredited re-election.

A two-day African Union summit agreed 'to encourage President Robert Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to initiate dialogue with a view to promoting peace, stability,' in a final resolution.

The summit, held amid mounting Western calls for sanctions, also decided 'to support the call for the creation of a government of national unity, to support SADC (Southern African Development Community) facilitation'.

According to host country Egypt, Mr Mugabe did not object to the resolution.

'We didn't hear Zimbabwe say 'no' to the resolution. They did not object to the resolution,' foreign ministry spokesman Hossan Zaki told reporters in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh as African leaders left for home.

'Mugabe didn't leave before the resolution was adopted. He said there is an ongoing dialogue with MDC as we were speaking,' he said.

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, speaking to the French radio RFI, said his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki had proposed in the closed-door talks that Mr Mugabe share power with Mr Tsvangirai.

'But Mugabe is not of this state of mind,' he said.

'He told me this is not possible, that he has his supporters. I reminded him this party (MDC) is a real force and that if a prime minister had to be chosen by his level of representation, it could only be Tsvangirai,' he said.

'I think Mugabe will reflect over all this. I'm not sure he can be persuaded from the first go,' said Mr Wade.

In Harare, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said his opposition group would also carefully examine the resolution. 'We need to understand the resolution first, then we will issue a full statement,' he told AFP.

According to an AU source who took part in the talks, Nigeria and Senegal both want the unity government 'to be based on the result of the first round of the presidential (polls)' which Mr Tsvangirai won.

Botswana went further and called for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the AU and the SADC, in a move which a diplomat said was aimed at pressuring Mr Mugabe to accept a power-sharing deal.

The AU diplomat said 'the feeling of several heads of state is that the sharing should be done with Mr Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister, but that's not explicitly stated in the resolution.'

Mr Mugabe won the run-off that was marred by violence which prompted Mr Tsvangirai, who won the first round, to withdraw ahead of the vote.

The diplomat explained the final resolution consists of three main points: dialogue between Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Mr Tsvangirai's MDC, formation of a national unity government, and support for SADC's mediation efforts.

But the text does not specify whether the opposition would be given the role of president or prime minister with executive powers.

Mr Mugabe, 84, attended the summit in Egypt after he was sworn in for a sixth term, having been declared the run-off winner with more than 85 pe rcent of the vote in a one-man race.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon pledged to work to broker a solution, while repeating his view that the election lacked legitimacy.

Washington announced on Monday that it was preparing to submit a draft sanctions resolution to the UN Security Council and urged African leaders to listen to their own election observers.

The European Union, on the first day of France's rotating presidency, took a tough stance on Mr Mugabe, with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner telling France 2 public television that Brussels 'will not accept a government other than one led by Mr Tsvangirai.'

European governments are also looking at a raft of sanctions, French foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said.

The new measures, which come on top of 2007 sanctions, could include slapping visa bans and asset freezes on members of Mr Mugabe's entourage, Mr Chevallier said.

However African Union Commission President Jean Ping called on Tuesday on the international community from interfering too much in the Zimbabwe crisis.

'It should be left to Africans to solve the problem without too much interference ... A little confidence should be put in us, in Africans,' he said after AU leaders adopted their resolution calling on Mr Mugabe and the MDC to form a government of national unity.