G8 vote of no-confidence in Mbeki and SADC's mediation efforts in Zimbabwe crisis.

A draft UN resolution on 'sanctions' against Zimbabwe, proposes an arms embargo on the country and a worldwide travel ban and financial sanctions on fourteen individuals responsible for the violence campaign.

The resolution drafted by Britain and the United States also says that the only legitimate election that took place in the country was the 29th March, which saw the first round of the presidential election, won by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

The draft resolution is expected to be tabled at the United Nations Security Council this week. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking at the end of the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, said that despite resistance from some quarters he was confident that there would be enough UN support for the resolution.

Brown said there should be no safe haven and no hiding place for the criminal cabal that now make up the Mugabe regime. Those implicated include Mugabe himself plus:

Constantine Chiwenga, Defence Forces Commander

Emmerson Mnangagwa, Rural Housing Minister

Gideon Gono, Reserve Bank Governor

Augustine Chihuri, Police chief

Patrick Chinamasa, Justice Minister

Perence Shiri, Air Marshall

David Parirenyatwa, Health Minister

Didymus Mutasa, Security and Lands Minister

George Charamba, President's spokesman

Paradzai Zimondi, Prison Service head

Happyton Bonyongwe, Central Intelligence Organisation director general Sydney Sekeremayi, Defence Minister

Joseph Made, State Minister for Agricultural Engineering

On Tuesday, the G8 leaders issued a statement saying they did not accept 'the legitimacy of any government that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people.'

The US proposal would also require the UN to name its own special representative to the country, effectively sidelining the current mediator, Thabo Mbeki.

Leaders of major industrialised nations meeting at their summit in Japan have agreed to tighten sanctions against Zimbabwe and to appoint a special United Nations (UN) envoy to the country.

Both moves are a slap in the face for President Thabo Mbeki, who is the official mediator appointed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Mbeki and other African leaders met the G8 leaders on Monday and tried to persuade them that sanctions would be counterproductive as they could discourage Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe from negotiating a power-sharing deal with the opposition and provoke conflict.

South Africa and most other African leaders are opposed to involving the UN in the Zimbabwe mediation. The G8 move was an implicit vote of no-confidence in Mbeki and SADC's mediation efforts.

This decision to put Zimbabwe directly on the UN's agenda puts the G8 countries in direct conflict with SA, which has insisted that Zimbabwe is an African problem to be resolved by Africans.

But the June 27 presidential election was evidently too much for the G8 leaders, persuading them that the African solution had failed.

"We deplore the fact that the Zimbabwean authorities pressed ahead with the presidential election despite the absence of appropriate conditions for free and fair voting as a result of their systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation," the G8 leaders said.