Harare — Zimbabwe's central bank governor has called for an end to the invasion of white-owned commercial farms as the political crisis caused by the delay in the announcement of results of recent presidential elections continued to edge towards bloodshed.

The veterans of the country's liberation war have invaded close to 100 commercial farms in the past few days in what has been described as a campaign of retribution following President Robert Mugabe's rejection at the polls.

Dr Gideon Gono, who is battling a world record breaking inflation rate of 165,000 per cent blamed on the collapse of the country's agriculture based economy, said the invasions threatened national stability.

His comments were the first by a close ally of Mr Mugabe since the Zanu PF's militants launched a violent campaign against the opposition following the land mark election outcome.

The country's once prosperous economy has been on a tailspin since 2000 when the war veterans invaded more than 3,000 white owned commercial farms with the tacit support of Mr Mugabe.

"Such friction, if indeed is re-emerging, does not augur well for a country that has first been hailed as exemplary in terms of peace and stability in the just ended harmonised elections," Dr Gono said.

A fortnight after Zimbabweans voted in general elections where President Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF lost its parliamentary majority to the opposition for the first since it came to power in 1980, results of the presidential vote are still unknown.

Unofficial tallies from both Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) show that Mr Mugabe lost the election to the opposition leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.

But Zanu PF says Mr Tsvangirai's victory fell short of the mandatory 50,3 percent for him to become the country's next president and wants a runoff as is provided for in the constitution.

Frustrated by the delays in the release of the results, the MDC sought the intervention of the High Court to force the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release them immediately.

A judgment is not due until Monday afternoon amid warnings by a lawyer representing the ZEC that releasing the results would be dangerous.

Have been rising

Tensions have been rising throughout the country with the ruling party saying it is preparing for a second round of voting.

The MDC says the war veterans, who were Mr Mugabe's storm troopers in violent re-election campaigns in 2000, 2002 and 2005 are targeting its supporters in commercial farms across the country.

Dr Gono added: "We call upon and urge all concerned to respect the law of the land and to settle any misunderstandings peacefully in the interest of both the image of the country and preservation of life and property whose destruction can militate against our turnaround."

The election impasse that is threatening to bury Zimbabwe's already ailing economy is likely to drag on for a number of days following reports that ZEC had accepted Zanu PF demands to recount votes in some constituencies.

Several ZEC polling officers have been arrested following Zanu PF claims that they connived with the opposition to prejudice Mr Mugabe of victory.

Meanwhile, President Mugabe's government said today it had no problem with Zambia's decision to hold an emergency regional summit on Zimbabwe this weekend but made clear it had not sought assistance, adds Reuters.

In the first direct regional intervention over Zimbabwe's election deadlock, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said he had called the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting for Saturday because of "deepening problems" in Harare.

Mr Mwanawasa, SADC's current chairman, gave no other details.

Concern has mounted among Zimbabwe's neighbours because no final result has been announced yet from the March 29 poll, dashing hope of quick action to turn round a ruined economy that has sent millions of refugees fleeing to surrounding countries. The MDC, which urged SADC to ask Mr Mugabe to step down, says the Zimbabwean leader is prolonging the delay while he plans a violent response to his biggest defeat since taking power in 1980.

SADC has been criticised in the past for failing to pressure Mr Mugabe despite the economic collapse in Zimbabwe, now suffering the world's highest hyper-inflation, chronic shortages of food and fuel and a near worthless currency.

"That's normal within SADC ... to call for meetings. We are neighbours and that is the spirit of SADC to meet and consider anything," Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu was quoted as saying by the state-run daily Herald newspaper.

"As far as we are concerned we have not asked for assistance. We are waiting for (the electoral commission) to do its work, verifying the results because it should announce the correct results, so we don't see any problem," said Ndlovu.

He said the electoral commission was "in the final stages" of its work.

The Herald reported the government was prepared to brief SADC on developments in Zimbabwe since the presidential, parliamentary, senate and local government ballots.

Yesterday, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said ruling ZANU-PF party tallies of the presidential vote showed a run-off would be necessary between Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Mr Chinamasa said the electoral commission had ordered five constituency recounts in the parliamentary ballot in which ZANU-PF lost control of the chamber for the first time.

The MDC has rejected a runoff and recounts, saying it would accept only an outright Tsvangirai win as shown by its tallies.

Mr Mwanawasa's summit call came after Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, said the results must be released.

"I think the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should have announced results by now," Mr Zuma told the Star newspaper in Johannesburg.

Mwanawasa briefly broke ranks with other African leaders last year when he called Zimbabwe a "sinking Titanic" before getting back in line under pressure.