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HARARE - United States President George W Bush, and Colin Powell, his secretary of state, will soon meet to discuss the course of action to be taken against the Robert Mugabe regime in light of the deteriorating political situation in Zimbabwe, a senior US official has said.

The news comes at a time when The Standard is reliably informed that several offshore financial accounts belonging to top government officials have already been identified by the US and other countries assisting it in its endeavour to clamp down on Zimbabwean officials it accuses of crimes against humanity.

In an exclusive interview with The Standard on Friday, US assistant secretary for democracy, human rights, and labour, Lorne Craner, said his visit had been prompted by his country's concern at the current situation in Zimbabwe, that he had been sent to view the situation on the ground and deliver the special message that "time is running out" for the Zimbabwe government to put its house in order.

"We see the situation here very much worsening, and Colin Powell and the President will be discussing what our policy ought to be from here onwards," said Craner.

The assistant secretary, who was on a four-day working visit to Zimbabwe, said evidence gathered during his visit would play a pivotal role in deciding the course of US policy towards Zimbabwe.

He said the US government, assisted by other countries, had so far identified several accounts, but could not give further details.

"One of the things we are doing at the moment is identifying these financial accounts that exist and secondly, particular individuals that if we did move forward with these restrictions, would be affected."

Commenting on what he had discovered during his short visit, Craner - who met officials from the foreign affairs ministry, the speaker of parliament and members of the civic society - said the situation was discouraging.

"There's a situation of great conflict here because the democratic promise that Zimbabwe holds is not being fulfilled. I have been to Zimbabwe before and a lot of countries in Africa and have visited other countries going through democratic transition. And one thing you can say about the last 20 years is that the expectations of democracy is very large."

"I say that because some in this country have tried to portray this as Zimbabwe versus Britain, Zimbabwe versus the US. It's not, it is Zimbabwe versus democracies around the world."

And I think you really see this if you listen to statements by people who are ordinarily not considered mouthpieces of the US, mouthpieces of Britain. People like Koffi Annan (UN secretary-general), Mary Robinson (UN high commissioner for refugees), Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela," he said.

"The point is that there is an expectation in this world today that you don't try to justify or try to talk about a shrinking economy and you don't try to justify or talk about restrictive media laws or a law that is restrictive on political parties, or a law that is restrictive on ordinary citizens' rights, as something that is defensible at the very time when other countries - South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Nigeria and others on this continent - are moving to open their economies, to open up their political systems."

He said this trend had generally become acceptable globally, particularly by the presidents of South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria who have described it as a necessary precondition for Africa to move into the 21st Century.

But for some reason Zimbabwe seemed to be going the other way.

"Every time you see all that is going all around the world you have Zimbabwe which is moving backwards with a government that is trying to justify all of these I've talked about before - it just doesn't fit into the 21st Century." - Zimbabwe Standard