Southern African leaders called Sunday for the West to lift sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle as they gave their seal of approval to his victory in disputed elections.

Wrapping up its annual summit, the 15-nation Southern African Development Community called for "the lifting of all forms of sanctions hitherto imposed on Zimbabwe," leveled against the veteran president and blacklisted firms and individuals.

"I believe Zimbabwe deserves better, Zimbabweans have suffered enough," said the regional bloc's incoming chairwoman, President Joyce Banda of Malawi.

The SADC also "noted with satisfaction the holding of free and peaceful" elections and congratulated Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party for their overwhelming win in the July 31 vote.

In a further display of confidence in the 89-year old, the leaders appointed Mugabe the deputy chairman of the group and voted that Zimbabwe will host the next SADC summit in July next year.

Mugabe's main rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, has cried foul over the election, which he says was rigged.

He lodged an electoral petition with the courts, but withdrew it a week later claiming he would not get a fair hearing.

That cleared the way for the inauguration of Mugabe, already in power for 33 years. He will take his oath of office on Thursday to begin a fresh five-year mandate, his seventh.

Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader, first took the reins of a newly independent Zimbabwe in 1980 as prime minister. He became president following a constitutional amendment in 1987.

Zimbabwean pro-democracy activists who traveled to Malawi for the summit deplored SADC's endorsement of the vote.

The bloc "failed" Zimbabweans and set a "wrong precedent for democratic elections," said Thabani Nyoni, a spokesman for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which represents 70 rights groups.

A 600-strong SADC observer mission judged Zimbabwe's vote free and peaceful, but has not yet commented on its fairness.

SADC chairwoman Banda told reporters the bloc was still waiting for final reports from its observers and from the African Union before it can declare the election "fair and credible."

Botswana, the only country in the region to call the vote into question, had vowed to lobby the summit for an audit of the election.

However Botswana President Ian Khama held talks with Mugabe on the fringes of the summit, and decided he would stand guided by SADC's ultimate decision, sources close to the talks said.

The two-day summit also discussed the political stand-off on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar and the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

AFP