Robert Mugabe's government on Monday brushed off opposition calls for conditions to be attached to a run-off presidential vote in Zimbabwe, as first round victor Morgan Tsvangirai prepared to return home.

After more than a month spent lobbying neighbouring countries for support as his country sank deeper into a post-election crisis, Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai has indicated his return is now imminent.

Free and fair?

But while Tsvangirai has insisted he will only run in a second round against Mugabe if the ballot is guaranteed to be free and fair, the government has ruled out any suggestion that Western observers will oversee the voting and said the MDC leader had no reason to fear for his safety.

"If indeed there was a threat to his life, we have got law enforcement agents," deputy information minister Bright Matonga told AFP.

"Those demands are mischievous. He has never told us he ran away from any kind of danger and as far as we know he is on holiday at the same time trying to drum up support for his campaign to demonise Zimbabwe."

Mugabe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government would not succumb to pressure from the opposition to invite certain international observers, and Western countries which have imposed sanctions are not welcome.

"We will think favourably of them if they lift sanctions. Until they do that, there is no basis to have any relationship with them," the state-run Herald quoted Chinamasa as saying.

After being widely criticised for staying out of the country so long, Tsvangirai announced his intention at a press conference in South Africa on Saturday to return home "within a few days".

Foreign observers wanted

But he said he would participate in the run-off only if there was a complete cessation of violence, a revamp of the electoral commission, and the deployment of international peacekeepers and foreign observers.

The MDC says Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony uninterrupted since independence in 1980, is orchestrating a campaign of terror to ensure a second round victory and that 32 of its supporters have been killed since the original polling day on 29 March.

MDC leaders met with Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Saturday to urge him to send regional Sadc peacekeepers for the second round.

MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told South African public radio there had been a commitment from dos Santos to ensure the runoff took place "within security of the law and that means peace and peace monitoring."

Chinamasa accused Tsvangirai of playing the victim, brushing aside his demands.

"Tsvangirai seeks to introduce new rules in a game that has already started. He should stop playing or acting like a spoilt child," Chinamasa said.

"He wants the UN to observe the elections yet the UN did not observe the 1980 elections. We will act in accordance with our electoral laws as negotiated in our Sadc dialogue."

Rubber stamp from Sadc

No Western monitors were allowed to oversee the first ballot and a team from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) was widely criticised for giving it a largely clean bill of health before any results were released.

Results from the first round were delayed by the electoral commission for five weeks and no date has been given for the run-off even though the law says it should take place within 21 days of the first-round results being announced.

Chinamasa has also said Zambian President and Sadc chairperson Levy Mwanawasa's failure to call for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Britain and its Western allies were a "disappointment" to the ruling Zanu-PF party.

"We have not heard him calling for the lifting of the sanctions. We have been adversely affected by the sanctions, as they are creating an uneven field of play," he said.

The sanctions, imposed by the United States and European Union after Mugabe allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election, include a travel ban against more than 100 top government officials, as well as the freezing of assets and a ban on arms sales.

Mugabe has blamed the sanctions for his country's economic down spiral characterised by inflation exceeding 165 000 percent, 80 percent unemployment and a critical shortage of food, fuel and other basic commodities.

AFP