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Zimbabwe dismisses calls for coalition


    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Zimbabwe on Tuesday dismissed calls for a Kenya-style grand coalition government to resolve its election crisis, saying the way out would be decided the "Zimbabwean way".

    President Robert Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a newfive-year term on Sunday after election authorities announcedhe had won a landslide victory in a one-candidate presidentialrun-off ballot that was boycotted by the opposition.

    "Kenya is Kenya. Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe. We have our ownhistory of evolving dialogue and resolving political impassesthe Zimbabwean way. The Zimbabwean way, not the Kenyan way. Notat all," Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba told journalists atan African Union summit in Egypt.

    "The way out is a way defined by the Zimbabwe people, freefrom outside interference, and that is exactly what willresolve the matter," he said.

    South Africa is close to brokering a deal that would seeMugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai negotiate aunity government, a South African newspaper said.

    The report came as African leaders discussed the Zimbabwecrisis at the AU summit in Sharm El-Sheikh amid calls for thecontinent to condemn Mugabe for holding the election, which wasmarred by violence.

    African leaders are expected to push for talks on apower-sharing deal between Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF andTsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change.

    (Reporting by Cynthia Johnston and Daniel Wallis; Editingby Richard Balmforth)