The UN Security Council has agreed to condemn the violence in Zimbabwe.
The council is to declare that a free and fair run-off election is impossible because of the turmoil and restrictions on the opposition.
The text is understood to have been agreed among envoys of the council's 15 member states, though Russia and one other country were awaiting final approval from their capitals.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said earlier Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to withdraw from the run-off presidential election was 'understandable'.
Speaking to reporters after meeting members of the Security Council, Mr Ban also said he strongly discouraged the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from holding the second-round election next Friday.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai earlier took refuge at the Dutch embassy in Harare.
A spokesman for Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said Mr Tsvangirai spent the night in the embassy but had not requested asylum.
The Movement for Democratic Change party made the request yesterday and Minister Verhagen decided that if he sought safety it would be granted.
Zimbabwe's police chief said today that Mr Tsvangirai was under no threat and had taken refuge in a move intended to provoke international anger.
The MDC said police raided its Harare headquarters today and took away more than 60 victims of the violence, including women and children.
Mr Tsvangirai yesterday withdrew from the 27 June presidential run-off vote, saying his party's supporters would be risking their lives it they cast their votes.
Condemnation of Robert Mugabe is intensifying in Zimbabwe following the MDC's decision to pull out of the presidential election run-off.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is mandated by the Southern African Development Community to mediate between the opposition and ZANU-PF.
He has proposed a government of national unity, and said the two sides should get together for talks. 'From our point of view it is still necessary that the political leadership of Zimbabwe should get together and find a solution to the challenges that face Zimbabwe,' he added.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said Mr Tsvangirai will lobby the international community and African countries to put pressure on Mr Mugabe to settle the crisis.
'Over the next two days, the (MDC) president will be explaining our decision to the world, lobbying the international community, but mainly SADC and the African Union, to put pressure on the Mugabe regime to resolve the crisis we are facing,' Mr Chamisa said.
'We need this regime to respect democracy and the will of the people,' he added.
Mr Tsvangirai said yesterday that there was a state-sponsored plot to keep Mr Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, in power. 'We in the MDC cannot ask them (the voters) to cast their vote on 27 June, when that vote could cost them their lives,' he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Mr Mugabe, who in the past has blamed election violence on the opposition. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Mr Tsvangirai had simply quit the race because he knew he would lose. 'The situation on the ground is now very supportive of us and Tsvangirai knows he faces certain defeat,' he said.
Political crisis
There has been growing condemnation from African countries over Zimbabwe's political crisis and the violence which the MDC says has left 86 people dead and displaced 200,000.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa (left), the current SADC chairman, said it was not possible to hold a free and fair election in Zimbabwe and the run-off should be postponed 'to avert a catastrophe' in the region.
Mr Tsvangirai called on the UN and the African Union to intervene to stop 'genocide' in the former British colony. Britain said the people had deserted Mr Mugabe. 'We have reached an absolutely critical moment in the drive by the people of Zimbabwe to rid themselves of the tyrannical rule of Robert Mugabe,' British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
Mr Tsvangirai has been detained by police five times while campaigning. The opposition party said army helicopters were patrolling over Harare and Bulawayo, the second city, and that Zimbabwe was effectively under military rule.
More than 2,000 youth members of Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party were on the rampage, attacking citizens in central Harare, the MDC said. Mr Mugabe has vowed never to turn over power to the opposition, which he brands a puppet of Britain and the US. He has in the past denied that his security forces have been responsible for brutal actions.
Once Mr Tsvangirai pulls out, Mr Mugabe would then be sworn in for another five-year term. But he could face difficulties governing as the MDC won control of the parliament in a March election.
Mr Tsvangirai beat Mr Mugabe in a 29 March vote but failed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot.
Robert Mugabe has presided over a ruinous slide in a once prosperous economy. Millions have fled the political and economic crisis to neighbouring states.
