Votes in the Zimbabwe presidential and parliamentary elections are to be recounted, it was reported, after Gordon Brown described the situation as "appalling".
The Prime Minister warned President Robert Mugabe that the world's patience was "running thin" with his failure to release the results of the poll after almost two weeks.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has now said it will conduct a full recount of the votes on April 19, the Zimbabwean state-run Sunday Mail newspaper reported.
Commission chairman George Chiweshe said President Robert Mugabe's party had demanded a recount after independent tallies indicated he had lost but had received enough votes to force a run-off - a second round between the two leading candidates only. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he won the election outright.
The UK urged African leaders to help find a solution to the controversy.
But despite reports of state-sponsored violence and a ban on political demos, South African President Thabo Mbeki insisted there was "no crisis".
And as he and other African leaders met, without Mr Mugabe, to discuss the issue, the veteran Zimbabwean leader dismissed Mr Brown as "a little tiny dot on this world".
Mr Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has been banned from public demonstrations.
Human Rights groups such as Amnesty International reported credible information suggesting a programme of "co-ordinated retribution against known and suspected opposition supporters".
In a direct appeal, Mr Brown said: "The democratic rights of the Zimbabwean people have got to be respected. We cannot wait any longer for the announcement of these results."
