Bush discusses Zimbabwe
2008-04-15 20:00
Washington - US President George W Bush and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday discussed the political stand-off in Zimbabwe ahead of UN Security Council meetings on Africa, the White House said.
"The situation in Zimbabwe needs to be resolved peacefully and soon. It's gone on for too long," spokesperson Gordon Johndroe said after the two leaders spoke by telephone.
Bush and Ban - who also took up Afghanistan, Kosovo, Darfur, and Myanmar - talked about upcoming security council meetings on Africa and noted that Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania would attend, said Johndroe.
The United States has pushed Zimbabwe's electoral authorities to reveal the still-undisclosed results from a disputed March 29 presidential election.
On Darfur, Bush and Ban talked about efforts "to speed up the flow of peacekeepers" into the violence-wracked Sudanese province, said Johndroe.
They discussed "working on getting the African contingent in as soon as possible, and then follow that on with the non-African contingents" of the peacekeeping operation and pushing Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to allow the deployment "expeditiously", the spokesperson said.
On newly independent Kosovo, Bush and Ban discussed co-operation between European Union and UN Mission in Kosovo forces "to make sure that Kosovo is a stable country", said Johndroe.
On Afghanistan, Bush told Ban he looks forward to meeting "in the near future" with the new UN special envoy for that war-wracked country amid a resurgence of the Taliban Islamist militia, said the spokesperson.
The two leaders also discussed Myanmar, Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States, and visits this week by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, said Johndroe.
They also discussed Myanmar, with Ban thanking Bush for US First Lady Laura Bush's public appeals for democratic reforms there, he said.
- AFP