Johannesburg — ZIMBABWE's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to meet President Thabo Mbeki soon to tackle the deadlock caused by authorities' refusal to release the results of the recent presidential poll.

The meeting will mark the first overt involvement by Mbeki in resolving the crisis.

It comes in the wake of criticism by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) of Mbeki's comments last weekend, when he described the "situation so far" as "manageable" and called for a wait-and-see approach to the election results.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims the delay is a ploy by President Robert Mugabe to "rig" the elections.

MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said yesterday Tsvangirai was to meet Mbeki soon. He confirmed that Tsvangirai had met African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi on Monday.

Mufamadi was Mbeki's facilitator in the failed talks between Zanu (PF) and the MDC, which were meant to create conditions for free and fair elections.

Sources said Tsvangirai spoke to Mbeki last week by telephone about the elections crisis.

Biti said African states, including SA, should intervene in Zimbabwe to prevent bloodshed.

He said Mugabe was inciting violence as a pretext for declaring a state of emergency and clinging to power.

The plea was made as the Harare High Court ruled that it would treat the MDC application for the immediate release of results as urgent. Hearings in the case began yesterday.

Mugabe has ordered the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to stop the release of the results, and demanded a recount of ballots.

The ruling Zanu (PF) has also demanded a recount in 16 parliamentary constituencies.

Five ZEC officials have been arrested for allegedly short-changing Mugabe of 4 993 votes.

This heightened fears that Mugabe had actually lost the poll by a wide margin and is scrounging for every vote to bridge the gap.

Tsvangirai claims he has won, while Zanu (PF) says this is "wishful thinking".

"I say to my brothers and sisters across the continent -- don't wait for dead bodies in the streets of Harare. There is a constitutional and legal crisis in Zimbabwe," Biti told a news conference yesterday.

"MDC people are being beaten up and farms with a few remaining pockets of white people are being invaded. Farms with known MDC supporters are being invaded," Biti said.

"Militias are being rearmed, The long and short of it is that there has been a complete militarisation of Zimbabwean society."

In Johannesburg yesterday, the ZCTU and Cosatu demanded that the election results be announced immediately. They also called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to break diplomatic relations with the Mugabe government.

"If there is a winner that winner must form a government. If there is no winner the election must be rerun, with an increased number of international and local observers," the secretary-general of the ZCTU, Wellington Chebebu, said.

Asked if the ZCTU would accept the eventual outcome, Chebebu said the Zimbabwean people "have spoken" and that people knew who the winners were.

"The Zimbabwean people did not sign a marriage contract with President Mugabe, his right to rule is not God given. What we have is a government who is ignoring the will of its people," he said.

Zanu (PF) and MDC party monitors were allowed inside counting stations and had signed off on the process, which is why results were posted outside polling stations soon after the counting was concluded.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the federation would "interact" with its alliance partners -- the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) -- to condemn Mugabe.

"In our view a public message must be communicated to President Mugabe that the current situation is unacceptable. It is disgusting and cannot go on like that," he said, adding that SADC could not continue to have "normal diplomatic relations" with Mugabe and called for him to be isolated.

The labour federations said they were preparing themselves for three scenarios.

These were: a "winner is declared", who would form a new government and begin a process of national unity; a runoff election between the two presidential candidates; and the third and worst would be that Mugabe ended up "ruling by decree", which would be tantamount to a coup.