SADC chairman President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi and Mozambican President Joachim Chissano met MDC leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday to impress on him the need to co-operate with the Government for greater unity and prosperity.

The meeting, which was held in Harare, came immediately after the swearing in of President Mugabe at State House.

Mr Tsvangirai has refused to accept the election result citing alleged massive rigging and pre-election violence despite wide endorsement of the poll by various observer teams.

Speaking after the meeting, President Muluzi said they listened to Mr Tsvangirai's position who said his party did not recognise the legitimacy of the result because they believed that the election was rigged

He, however, said the two leaders told Mr Tsvangirai that Zimbabweans had to work together despite divergent views for the transformation of Zimbabwe.

Mr Muluzi said he appealed to Mr Tsvangirai to have confidence in the mechanism to build this nation.

President Chissano said the MDC should accept the result of the election and start to work closely with the Government despite the outcome.

Mr Tsvangirai said he did not recognise the current Government saying victory was stolen from him.

He insisted that the Government was illegitimate and said he would not work with it.

Asked why his party has refused to endorse the presidential election while accepting the Harare and Chitungwiza mayoral elections, which the MDC won, Mr Tsvangirai said his party was only declared winners but had not accepted the legitimacy of the elections.

This is despite the fact that the MDC candidate for the Harare mayoral election, Mr Elias Mudzuri, was sworn into office last Friday.

MDC spokesman, Mr Learnmore Jongwe said last week his party accepted the mayoral election results because they were sure of victory.