Zimbabwe vote transparency urged

Mr Miliband said there was 'united determination' regarding Zimbabwe

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said international monitoring must be allowed if Zimbabwe's presidential election goes to a second round.

The UN Security Council are united in wanting the results, from last Saturday, to be announced, he said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also said the election results should be made public as soon as possible.

The comments come as the Zimbabwean opposition has been prevented from trying to get the results published.

The opposition MDC wants the high court to force officials to release the result the poll. It says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the ballot.

His opponent President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has said it will back him if a run-off is called.

Mr Miliband said the members of the Security Council are staying in close touch over the issue.

'United determination'

He told the BBC: "Remember, we don't have the results from last weekend's elections and everything is premature until we know those results.

"So, a united call for the results to be published, a united call that if there's a second round there needs to be proper international monitoring, and a united determination to continue with the food aid that is getting to very, very poor people in Zimbabwe."

He added: "Remember, £50m a year of British taxpayers' money is going into Zimbabwe because of the disastrous situation there."

Speaking at a news conference after the Progressive Governance Summit, Mr Brown said the leaders were united in wanting the results to be made public as soon as possible.

He said: "I think we're all agreed that the election results should be published and they shouldn't be delayed and the elections have got to be seen to be fair.

"At the same time, we do not have the publication of the presidential election's results yet and we're monitoring the situation closely.

"I'm fortunate in that I will be able to have talks with President Mbeki tomorrow. And of course, by that time, we hope that the full results will be published."