HOWZAT

The United States backed the British initiative. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador, said Washington was seeking a "strong statement that calls to account and assigns responsibility".

"It's clear that the country is in crisis, a political crisis, a crisis of legitimacy. Without a run-off election that's fair, that people can have confidence in, the government cannot be legitimate," he said.

Security Council ambassadors were due to discuss the growing crisis at their monthly meeting with Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, as experts from each mission met separately to try to agree the text of the proposed statement. The meeting was due to start tonight and Mr Ban was expected to make a statement later.

Gordon Brown led international condemnation of Mr Mugabe's regime today, calling on the international community to refuse to recognise the run-off result if the Zimbabwean president decides to go ahead with a vote without an opposition.

In a House of Commons statement he said Britain would now be pressing for fresh sanctions against Mr Mugabe’s inner circle - including travel bans and the freezing of financial assets held abroad.

"The regime has made it impossible to hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. State-sponsored terror and intimidation has put the opposition in an untenable position," Mr Brown told MPs.

The Prime Minister said that no nation should be prepared to recognise Mr Mugabe’s regime as the legitimate government of Zimbabwe.

"The international community must send a powerful and united message that we will not recognise the fraudulent election-rigging and the violence and intimidation of a criminal and discredited cabal," he said.

Later, in a separate statement to MPs, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the campaign of violence by supporters of Mr Mugabe had set the stage for the "most rigged election in African history".

Hours after his withdrawal decision, meanwhile, it was confirmed Mr Tsvangirai had taken refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare.

"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, 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 around the election.

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

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