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CAPE TOWN - South Africa will send a diverse team of election observers to Zimbabwe, including politicians, business people, trade unionists and clerics, to help ensure a free and fair presidential poll, the presidency said on Wednesday.

The initiative follows talks between President Thabo Mbeki and South African business, labour union and agricultural leaders in Pretoria on Tuesday.

A presidential spokeswoman said Mbeki had briefed the leaders about initiatives by the South African government, both bilaterally and as part of the Southern African Development Community, to help ensure that the elections on March 9 and 10 were free and fair.

Details of the proposed observer team were still being ironed out and it was not yet clear how it would fit in with other initiatives, such as those of SADC and the South African Parliament, which are sending separate monitoring teams.

"It has been agreed in principle that it will be a multi-sectoral team, co-ordinated by the government," the spokeswoman said.

Mbeki had also outlined steps taken by SADC to address food shortages in Zimbabwe.

"There was consensus that South Africa must do all it can to act in the best long-term interests of the people of Zimbabwe and the SADC region," a statement from the presidency said.

Meanwhile, SADC foreign ministers gathered in Harare on Wednesday for a two-day meeting to follow-up on resolutions on Zimbabwe taken at the regional heads of state summit in Malawi earlier this month.

Zimbabwe was also on the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, which is to meet in London on Wednesary Jack Straw said his government would push for Zimbabwe's suspension from the 54-member Commonwealth when its heads of state meet in Coolum, Australia, from March 2 to 5. Nampa-Sapa

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