The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for international action against Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe.
Mr Brown said that the situation in Zimbabwe had deteriorated to the point of an international rather than a national emergency.
The southern African country has been paralysed by a long running political crisis, and is now in the grip of a cholera epidemic which has killed some 600 people, and is threatening to spread to neighbouring South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel peace laureate said if Mr Mugabe did not resign, he should be removed by force and face war crimes charges.
