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KYOTO, Japan: Group of Eight foreign ministers warned on Friday that they would not recognise Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government as he went ahead with a widely condemned election.
The industrial powers, meeting in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, also stepped up pressure on Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programmes and pressed Myanmar to open up further to aid after its deadly cyclone.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined top diplomats of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia as Zimbabwe headed to the polls in a one-man run-off election.
"We will not accept the legitimacy of any government that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people," the eight nations said in a joint statement.
They said that the results of the first round of voting on March 29 -- in which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai topped Mugabe but fell short of a majority -- "must be respected."
Tsvangirai pulled out of the election and holed himself up in the Dutch embassy, citing deadly election violence and threats.
"This kind of sham cannot possibly produce a legitimate outcome," Rice told a joint press conference in Kyoto.
Rice said that the United States, which chairs the UN Security Council until the end of the month, would consult with other nations about "what next step we might need to take."
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that the election in his country's former colony was "one-sided in every aspect."
"So it is very clear on the part of the United Kingdom -- there is no legitimacy for the government of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe," Miliband said.
"The only people with any shred of democratic legitimacy are those who won the March 29 first round," he said.
The two-day meeting is meant to lay the groundwork for a summit of the Group of Eight leaders from July 7 to 9 in the northern Japanese resort town of Toyako.
The talks coincided with long-awaited progress in a US-backed denuclearisation deal with North Korea.
North Korea was expected to demolish part of a nuclear facility on Friday to showcase to the world its commitment to denuclearisation.
A day earlier, North Korea handed over an account of its nuclear programmes nearly seven months late.
Japan had opposed the US decision on Thursday to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism due to a row over Pyongyang's past abductions of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s.
A joint statement called for North Korea to completely give up nuclear weapons and "strongly urged" the communist state to resolve the issue.
"All of the participants showed support for us. The issue is important not only for Japan -- it is a human rights issue for the international community," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said.
While North Korea reaps the rewards of progress in disarmament, Western powers have been tightening the screws on Iran, which refuses to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment.
The European Union on Monday approved sanctions stopping operations of Bank Melli, Iran's largest financial institution, in Britain, France and Germany -- the three EU countries negotiating with Tehran.
The joint statement called for Iran to suspend its enrichment work and to "act in a more responsible and constructive manner" in the region, including in the Middle East peace process, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened Israel and played down the Holocaust.
The foreign ministers also urged Myanmar's military regime to remove remaining restrictions on aid after Cyclone Nargis, which left more than 130,000 people dead or missing, and to free political detainees including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
- AFP/jk
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