Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is defying mounting pressure to call off Friday's presidential election after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change pulled out of the run-off.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and South African ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma said the poll had to be postponed after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to seek refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare.

The United Nations Security Council issued an unprecedented and unanimous condemnation of violence against Mr Tsvangirai's supporters.

But Mr Mugabe shrugged off the pressure, telling a rally in western Zimbabwe that the world could not stop the election.

He said: "We will proceed with our elections. The verdict is ours.

"Other people can say what they want but elections are ours, we are a sovereign state and that is it.

"Those who want to recognise us on the basis of object can do so, those who don't want keep your judgement to yourself, and we are going to vote and that vote will decide whether we have won or lost.

"They can shout as much as they want from Washington or from London and any other quarter, but our people, our people and only our people will decide and no one else."

In New York, the non-binding statement of the 15-nation UN body said: "The Security Council regrets that the campaign of violence and the restrictions on the political opposition have made it impossible for a free and fair election to take place on June 27."

Mr Tsvangirai reacted to the ruling saying: "I think it's a very important resolution. It recognises the people who are accountable for the violence, and it squarely placed that responsibility at Mugabe's leadership...I am sure that he can no longer remain defiant to that international position."

He repeated that he would not be participating in the election, saying: "It's ridiculous to go into an election of that kind. It's a one-man competition."

Mr Tsvangirai, who at the weekend withdrew from Friday's run-off, has not requested asylum but has spent two nights in the embassy and is welcome to stay for his own security, officials from the Netherlands said.

The UN statement had been watered down from an earlier British-drafted version, which blamed Mr Mugabe's government for the crisis and said Mr Tsvangirai would be the legitimate leader if a credible run-off vote could not be held.

But the final version, said the council, "notes that the results of the (March 29 elections) must be respected." Mr Tsvangirai won that first-round, though the government said his narrow victory meant a run-off was necessary.

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