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Monday, July 8, 2002 - Web posted at 2:49:30 pm GMT

AFRICAN foreign ministers last week examined ways to beef up mechanisms for monitoring and observing elections on the continent, South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday.

The soon-to-be-launched African Union (AU) should have the capacity to assess elections, she told reporters in Durban.

"The council discussed how to strengthen the mechanisms for monitoring, observing and whole issues around elections so that AU can have capacity to do that."

Dlamini-Zuma chairs the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Council of Ministers, which has been meeting in Durban ahead of the launch of the AU.

OAU observers drew sharp criticism in March this year for supporting the outcome of the controversial presidential elections in Zimbabwe that returned Robert Mugabe to power.

Dlamini-Zuma on Friday did not elaborate on the nature of the discussions on elections. She later said Zimbabwe had not come up in the meeting of the Council of Ministers so far.

The minister would not be drawn on assertions that Zimbabwe was a problem case in view of the OAU's move to bar Madagascar from the AU after disputed elections in that country.

She merely said: "If you think it is a problem, it is a problem." - Nampa-Sapa

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