Harare — THE United Nations (UN) is keeping a tight lid on secretary-general Kofi Annan's scheduled meeting with President Robert Mugabe at the African Union (AU) summit over the crisis in Zimbabwe, which has attracted increased global attention.

This week, Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric further skirted around the specifics of the UN secretary general's visit to Banjul for the continental body's fifth summit.

"In Banjul, he will attend the AU summit. On the margins, he will hold a series of bilateral meetings," said Dujarric in a terse reference to Annan's visit. "He is also expected to host a mini-summit on Cote d'Ivoire, which will bring together President Laurent Gbagbo and other African leaders," he said in highlights of Tuesday's UN briefings.

Diplomatic sources said South African President Thabo Mbeki, who tried in vain to broker an amicable settlement to the political crisis in Zimbabwe will, together with the UN secretary-general meet President Mugabe on the sidelines of the AU summit possibly to pave the way for the UN chief's visit to Zimbabwe. The AU summit opens on July 1 and ends on July 2.

Mbeki is on record as saying that the proposed visit to Zimbabwe by Annan could mark a carthatic turning point for the increasingly isolated nation.

Political commentators believe that Annan's visit, which, to all intents and purposes now hangs in the balance, could give President Mugabe a chance to defend the most cherished aspect of his rule, his name, in the twilight of a political career marred by allegations of human rights abuses. It was widely expected that Annan would cut a deal with President Mugabe to tackle Zimbabwe's deepening crisis.

But President Mugabe is understood to be against Annan's planned visit to Harare, which could see Zimbabwe being dragged before the powerful UN Security Council, particularly following a damning report by the world body on its widely condemned Operation Murambatsvina that left 700 000 people homeless.

Harare is fast running out of options to ward off the inexorably rising pressure for political reforms and is trying every trick in the book to avoid censure by the UN.

Zimbabwe, which last year said it had invited Annan to come and assess first hand the impact of its clean-up exercise, has indicated that Annan, who it now views as a pawn of the US and British governments, was no longer welcome.

This is despite the fact that Mbeki had earlier said that Annan's visit would help normalise relations between Zimbabwe and the rest of the world.

An alleged democratic deficit has left Zimbabwe in a spot of bother with the international community. Harare denies the charges, laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of the country's critics, whom it accuses of demonising Zimbabwe as retribution for embarking on controversial land reforms.