UN pulls out of Zimbabwe poll

The United Nations has announced it's pulling out of preparations for the elections in Zimbabwe later this month.

A UN spokesman said that after agreeing that the UN should co-ordinate international observer groups, President Mugabe had then decided it should simply send its own observers.

The spokesman said this was unacceptable -- if the UN wasn't co-ordinating the monitors there was no point in it being there.

A BBC correspondent in Harare says that for the moment there doesn't appear to be any question of other observer missions pulling out.

But our correspondent says the opposition is relying heavily on the international observers to help ensure the elections proceed smoothly and any threat to their role would be viewed very seriously.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service