The opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called today for “armed peacekeepers” to be sent to Zimbabwe as an African leader warned of a Rwandan-style genocide if the crisis is not brought under control.

Mr Tsvangirai briefly emerged from the Dutch Embassy, where he has been holed up for three days after withdrawing from Friday’s presidential run-off, and appealed for renewed efforts by regional leaders meeting on the Zimbabwe unrest.

He was asked about comments made in The Guardian today in which he called for the United Nations to move towards "active isolation" of Zimbabwe, which required “a force to protect the people."

“I didn’t ask for any military intervention, but for armed peacekeepers,” he told reporters at his Harare home before returning to his refuge at the embassy.

As Southern African leaders met in Swaziland to discuss the crisis - although without President Mbeki of South Africa - Mr Tsvangirai repeated calls for some kind of transitional government, backed by the South African Development Community (SADC) and African Union, to replace Robert Mugabe.

And he appeared to take a swipe at Mr Mbeki, the official SADC mediator, when he said "this cannot be a part-time mediation effort".

He added: “The time for action is now. The people in the country can wait no longer."

As Mr Tsvangirai left the embassy, police raided the headquarters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the eastern city of Mutare where 200 people displaced by political violence had taken refuge, the party said.

The MDC claims that scores of its supporters have been killed in political violence since Mr Tsvangirai beat Mr Mugabe in the first round of the presidential vote but did not get the majority needed to become president. Mr Tsvangirai quit the presidential race on Sunday because he said that the campaign of violence had made a free and fair vote impossible.

Mr Tsvangirai said today that “no discussion” was possible with the Government until his own MDC No 2, Tendai Biti and 2,000 other “political prisoners” were freed. He also called for an end to the intimidation, the disbandment of militias, the swearing-in of newly elected MPs and the free movement of humanitarian aid.

In the first concrete step to punish Mr Mugabe for the recent bloodshed, Britain said today that it was preparing tougher sanctions against specific members of Zimbabwe’s Government.

Mr Tsvangirai said that while he was prepared to negotiate with Mr Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) before Friday, his Movement for Democratic Change would “not have anything to do” with a government that emerged from the vote.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga warned that Zimbabwe was a "disaster in the making". “If the world does not act now, we will soon have a situation very similar to what we saw in Rwanda,” he said, referring to the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people died.

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