Cape Town — The African Union chairman, President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana, has reiterated his concern at the recent behaviour of the Zimbabwe government.

Kufuor told journalists outside the office of South African President Thabo Mbeki yesterday: "When you have the leader of the opposition [Morgan Tsvangirai] beaten up, things like that, for good or ill naturally all concerned should be worried."

He added: "We should all try to allow the law to work."

Kufuor, who was in South Africa to open a session of the Pan African Parliament on Monday, held discussions with Mbeki yesterday. He said before the talks that since South Africa was Zimbabwe's neighbour, he wanted to  be "properly briefed" by Mbeki.

A meeting of heads of state of the Southern African Development Community, held in Dar es Salaam in March, appointed Mbeki to facilitate dialogue among political parties and interest groups in Zimbabwe.

The Ghana News Agency reported that in Kufuor's opening address to the Pan African Parliament, he said Africa should take the lead in respecting and upholding human rights, both within the continent generally, and in individual states. Kufuor said the situation in some countries, where domestic policies were at complete variance with those principles, was regrettable.