Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, flew unexpectedly to Zimbabwe yesterday in a renewed attempt to persuade Robert Mugabe to play by the rules or accept a compromise before next week’s presidential run-off.

Government sources said that Mr Mbeki cancelled a scheduled trip to Sudan and instead arrived in Harare just before 1pm local time. He met Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, and later held talks with Mr Mugabe for 3½.

In recent days African diplomats, normally much more reserved than their Western counterparts, have raised their voices over mounting levels of violence and said that a free and fair poll was not possible.

Those sentiments were echoed by Ban Ki Moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, who voiced his “profound alarm” over developments in Zimbabwe. “Should these conditions continue to prevail, the legitimacy of the election outcomes would be in question,” he said.

Diplomatic sources told The Times that Mr Mbeki would urge Mr Mugabe to reconsider a government of national unity to prevent an election certain to lead to more violence.One senior African diplomatic source said: “A vote will solve nothing as the military have made it clear they will not give up power to Tsvangirai — the only way out is a deal.”

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