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More than 200 people have gathered outside the US embassy in Zimbabwe seeking refuge or assistance.

Many of them are carrying small bundles of possessions and say they were displaced in electoral violence.

"We are working with international organisations and local partners to look for safe places to take them," an embassy spokesman told Reuters.

On Wednesday, Zimbabwe's opposition leader rejected talks on a government of unity, saying the violence must end.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of last Friday's presidential run-off, which President Robert Mugabe won unopposed, citing state-sponsored political violence.

House burned

Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe says those gathered outside the embassy in the capital, Harare, say they have nowhere else to go.

He says they have not been let inside the embassy grounds.

One man said his house was burned down in Mtoko, north-east of Harare, after the first-round vote.

After he left hospital he took refuge at the MDC's headquarters in Harare, but was evicted by police last week.

Since last Friday's run-off, the MDC says nine of its supporters have been murdered, hundreds more beaten and forced to leave their homes.

Almost 100 people have been killed and 200,000 left homeless since the MDC won the March vote, the opposition says.



