By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday that President Robert Mugabe's departure from office was long overdue and a food crisis and cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe meant it was now vital for the international community to act.
Zimbabwe has declared an emergency and appealed for international help to battle a cholera outbreak that has killed 575 people, with 12,700 reported cases of the disease, according to the United Nations.
"It's well past time for Robert Mugabe to leave," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Copenhagen.
In a further sign of growing international pressure, European Union diplomats said the bloc planned more sanctions against Zimbabwe next week unless progress was made in ending a political deadlock over how to implement a power-sharing deal.
Nobel laureate and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Thursday that Mugabe must step down or be removed by force and that the Zimbabwean leader faced indictment for war crimes in the Hague unless he quit.
Rice said the stalled power-sharing talks, a "sham election" earlier this year, economic meltdown and the humanitarian toll from the cholera epidemic required swift action.
"If this is not evidence to the international community that it's time to stand up for what is right I don't know what will be," Rice told a news conference.
"Frankly the nations of the region have to lead it."
South Africa said on Friday that Zimbabwe's call for international help was encouraging. "We think that that's a major breakthrough," government spokesman Themba Maseko said.
"The time for action is now and we believe that the Zimbabwean government is on board, wants help from the international community, and we want to lead that help as South Africa," he added.
Zimbabwe's neighbours in the 15-nation Southern African Development Community have so far failed to persuade Mugabe and the opposition to implement a September 15 power-sharing agreement.
But faced with Zimbabwe's worsening economic collapse and the humanitarian crisis spilling over into their own countries, Southern African leaders may now be forced to take a stronger stand against the veteran Zimbabwean leader.
Economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, isolated by Western countries under Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian rule, has left the health system ill-prepared to cope with the cholera epidemic that it once would have prevented or easily treated.
CHOLERA SPREADS
The country has the highest official modern-day inflation of 231 million percent but inflation is seen much higher with prices doubling every 24 hours. Basic foods are often unobtainable and the currency is worthless.
The cholera cases have been fuelled by the collapse of the water system, which has forced residents to drink from contaminated wells and streams. The disease has spread to neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana.
South Africa said it would send a team of senior government officials to Zimbabwe next week to assess the food crisis and investigate what aid is needed.
Thousands of Zimbabweans are believed to cross the border, often illegally, into South Africa each day. A cholera centre has been set up in the South African border town of Musina.
Neighbouring Mozambique said on Friday it had put all border areas on maximum alert over the threat of cholera entering while Zambia said the cholera outbreak had spilt over its border.
One Zimbabwean died from the disease in a Zambian border town while two others were receiving treatment.
Zimbabwe does not have the funds to pay doctors and nurses or buy medicine and aid agency Oxfam said at least 300,000 people weakened by lack of food are in danger from the epidemic.
South Africa will announce an aid package for Zimbabwe next week, Maseko said, adding Zimbabwe's political parties have agreed that all aid should be distributed in a non-partisan way.
Western nations, which accused Mugabe of running the once prosperous nation into the ground, have promised aid. European Union ministers have agreed to provide an initial 200,000 euros ($253,800) to the Red Cross and other aid agencies.
In Geneva, the United Nations said Zimbabwe needed a huge influx of emergency aid to repair its collapsing health and sanitation systems and fight the epidemic.
"It is major public health crisis," WHO's global cholera coordinator Claire-Lise Chaignat told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming in Copenhagen, Wendell Roelf in Cape Town, Charles Mangwiro in Maputo, Shapi Shacinda in Lusaka, Ingrid Melander in Brussels, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Marius Bosch; Editing by Michael Roddy)