Lates from DAVOS

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) - African leaders made new calls Friday for Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to stand down with Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade saying he had offered him asylum.
"If he leaves power he will not go to Europe," Wade said in a debate on Africa at the World Economic Forum in Davos, "so I told him: 'Come to Senegal'."

"My friend Mugabe does not want to make concessions, we are at a dead end, he can no longer govern the country alone," added the Senegal leader, current president of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

Wade said Mugabe had to be "advised to say clearly what path he will take to leave power" and be guaranteed that "if he leaves his country he will not be chased."

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, a longstanding critic of the veteran Zimbabwe president, said: "Its time for Mr Mugabe to be shown the door." On Thursay, Odinga suggested a "golden handshake" for Mugabe if he quits.

Mugabe faces mounting pressure over a dramatic economic collapse in Zimbabwe which has been worsened by political turmoil since a bitterly disputed election last year.

The Zimbabwe crisis dominated the Africa debate at the Davos forum.

South Africa's President Kgalema Motlanthe, who mediated talks this week between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on forming a national unity government, said a political agreement in Zimbabwe would be the best solution.

South Africa is to hold a new summit on Zimbabwe with regional leaders and Motlanthe said: "I think this time we have a basis for a breakthrough in Zimbabwe on a political level."

He said a Mugabe-Tsvangirai accord would be "a giant step in the process of stabilising Zimbabwe."

Mozambique's Prime Minister Luisa Dias Diogo also said the crisis would be best settled between Zimbabweans. "It is necessary that it works, anything that happens in Zimbabwe affects Mozambique," she told the debate.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan said: "Many think it has taken too long to find a solution. We have to come up with a solution that also leads to economic recovery."

"It is not a national problem," Annan insisted, "it destabilises the region."

He added: "The only true expression of the will of the people was the March election" which Tsvangirai insists he won.

Britain, the United States and other western powers have all called for Mugabe to stand down.