President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is the head of the security committee of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) which has the ability to deploy peacekeepers in the region. The meeting was held late Saturday.

Earlier Saturday, Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had said he would return home to face veteran President Robert Mugabe in a presidential runoff poll on condition that SADC send peacekeepers. He has been abroad since shortly after the first round of elections in March.

"We have taken up that issue (of peacekeepers) with President dos Santos. We met with him in Angola last night," Tsvangirai's spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, told AFP.

"We have every confidence that President dos Santos understands the situation is dire and something has to be done to curtail the violence," he added.

Dos Santos is generally believed to be close to Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980.

Sibotshiwe said that all the conditions set for Tsvangirai's return, which also include free media, changes to Zimbabwe's electoral commission and an end to violence, were in line with SADC principles for elections.

Sibotshiwe reiterated his strong criticism of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is the chief SADC mediator for the Zimbabwe crisis.

"The man has failed to assist the Zimbabwean people. We have had nine years of mediation with very little to show for it," he said.

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