JACOB Zuma, the leader of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has revealed that “countries in the world” have been urging South Africa to use force to oust President Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

Zuma, tipped to be South Africa’s next leader after President Thabo Mbeki, who has been the chief negotiator between Mugabe’s Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to find solutions to a deepening crisis, said they had rejected the use of force.

“I don’t think Mbeki must apply force in Zimbabwe,” he told the New York Times on a visit to London Wednesday. “This is what countries in the world are urging South Africa to do and it is wrong. I don’t think if you are a stronger country you must then use force. Negotiations and persuasions is a necessary thing to do rather than use force.

“All that we should do from the outside is to help what the Zimbabweans do.”

Zuma said the United States and Britain had undermined their own ability to play a role in Zimbabwe’s political crisis because of the vehemence of their criticism of Mugabe’s government.

With almost a month since Zimbabweans voted in presidential elections, results have still not been announced. But Zuma, in another interview with the BBC, refused to blame the delay on President Mugabe.

He said: “The delay in announcing the results, it is, in actual fact, the electoral commission, it's not Mugabe's job to announce the results.”

Zuma, who has been reported as being at odds with President Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe, insisted that he was fully behind Mbeki. South Africa, he said, had decided “not to stand on rooftops and criticise Mugabe” in order to be able to talk to both sides in the dispute.

“Quiet diplomacy has not failed,” he insisted. “Zimbabwe is our neighbour. We need to engage Zimbabweans on both sides. It would not have been prudent for us to stand there and criticize them. How could we have engaged with both sides if we did so?”

He added: “We decided to engage Zimbabweans quietly and it was dubbed quiet diplomacy. We can produce a better report than anyone else on what happened.”

With a report in the state-run Herald newspaper on Wednesday floating the possibility of a unity government, with President Mugabe at the helm to end the stand-off, Zuma said it was “not premature” to be talking about such a plan.

He said: “I don’t think it is premature because you are dealing with a situation where we are almost three weeks after the election and there has been no announcement of the results.

“So we have to say what do we do? The natural thing is that there should be discussions. The call for a unity government is not premature, it is actually appropriate at this time.”

Zuma said the presidential election appeared to have produced a very narrow margin between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, meaning that both men commanded significant support among Zimbabweans.

But he was keen to point out he was not suggesting Zimbabwe would be suited by a unity government, an option exercised in Kenya to stop post-election violence.

“I’m not necessarily making a call,” he said. “This is what should be looked at as one option.”

Zuma reserved his criticism for Britain and the United States for taking “extreme positions” in their dealings with Zimbabwe.

“The unfortunate thing for Britain was the extreme position Britain took in relation to Zimbabwe. It then became difficult for Britain to play any role without people being suspicious,” said Zuma.

The British attitude, he said, “in a sense undermined the role it could play in Zimbabwe” and the United States authorities “also took the same position as Britain.”

“I’m not saying they are disqualified” from influencing events in Zimbabwe, Zuma continued, but “their action undermined the possibility of their playing a meaningful role in Zimbabwe.”