Southern African heads of state called on Zimbabwe's election authorities on Sunday to verify and release election results speedily and "in accordance with the due process of law."
Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, into the early hours of Sunday, the leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) also urged all parties in Zimbabwe to accept the results of the elections when they were announced.
Zimbabweans have been waiting for two weeks to hear the presidential election results.
The summit declaration said if there was a run-off presidential election between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe government "is urged to ensure that… [it is] held in a secure environment."
The opposition fears that the ruling Zanu PF party is gearing up for a violent campaign to intimidate voters into voting for Mugabe.
The SADC declaration was released to journalists early Sunday morning by Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Bande, news agencies reported. Mugabe was not at the summit, nor was he mentioned in the declaration, said Agence France-Presse.
The meeting lasted for more than 12 hours. Reuters quoted an unnamed senior Zambian official as saying there was disagreement among SADC leaders over whether the situation in Zimbabwe should be called a crisis.
AFP reported that Tendai Biti, secretary-general of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the declaration exposed the limitations of SADC's policy of "quiet diplomacy" and urged the SADC mediator on Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, to abandon it.
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But Biti added that the opposition was largely satisfied with the outcome of the summit: "This is a major improvement, SADC has acquitted itself fairly well," AFP reported him as saying.
In a separate development, Harare's government-owned Sunday Mail newspaper reports that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has agreed to recount votes in 23 parliamentary constituencies in which Zanu PF is disputing results.
Zanu PF lost control of parliament in the elections two weeks ago, and enough successful challenges to individual results could swing the balance of power in its favour again.
In Lusaka, Foreign Minister Bande told journalists the issue had been discussed at the summit. If there was a recount, it should be carried out in the presence of all parties, he was reported as saying.
