Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe opposition leader, has taken refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare as President Robert Mugabe's security forces tighten the screw on his Movement for Democratic Change.

Mr Tsvangirai made the request for refuge yesterday, the embassy confirmed, at around the time he was publicly announcing that he was withdrawing from the presidential election run-off on Friday.

“He is temporarily at the embassy of the Netherlands in Harare,” said Bart Rijs, a Dutch foreign ministry spokesman.

“A request was made yesterday by his party, the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), and Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen decided that if he sought safety it would be granted.”

The campaign of violence and intimidation against the MDC today appeared to be continuing unabated, as police raided the party's Harare HQ and took away about 60 people. Most were said to be women and children sheltering from the state-sponsored violence that has killed up to 90 people during the election campaign so far.

Meanwhile Patrick Chinamasa, the Zimbabwean justice minister, said that Friday's presidential voting would go ahead, as MDC leader Mr Tsvangirai was "too late" in deciding to withdraw.

Mr Mugabe, 84, appears to be intending to claim new legitimacy for his 28-year rule from what would in effect be a walkover vote. He has said that the MDC, whom he calls puppets of the West, will never be allowed to take power in Zimbabwe.

His actions have triggered a chorus of international disapproval. Lord Malloch-Brown, a Foreign Office minister, said that Mr Mugabe was no longer the legitimate ruler of Zimbabwe.

"Our objectives are to get in every forum possible a recognition that today President Mugabe no longer remains the proper rightful leader of the country," Lord Malloch-Brown said. "He has no claim under his own constitution for the presidency ... we do not accept the status quo, we do not expect the international community to accept the status quo."

Lord Malloch-Brown spoke before a meeting of the United Nations Security Council later today in which Britain intends to raise the subject of Zimbabwe yet again.

Mr Tsvangirai announced yesterday that free and fair elections were impossible in Zimbabwe amid the climate of violence. He was not prepared to have his supporters risk their lives in order to vote for him.

Today he appealed to Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern African Development Community, which was supposed to be monitoring the elections, to push for Friday's vote to be postponed, or for Mr Mugabe to step down.

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