US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday urged "broader and stronger international action" to end the worsening pre-poll violence in Zimbabwe and ensure a free and fair presidential vote later this month.
  
Chairing an informal meeting with members of the UN Security Council on Zimbabwe, she said that "by its actions the (President Robert) Mugabe regime has given up any pretense that the June 27 election will be allowed to proceed in a free and fair manner."
  
"We have reached the point where broader, stronger international action is needed," she added as the security situation deteriorated in Zimbabwe.
  
In late March, Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round of the presidential election, but election officials said he fell short of an outright majority and must face Mugabe in the June 27 run-off.
  
Thursday, Tsvangirai's deputy, Tendai Biti, was charged in court with subversion and election rigging -- offences that could carry the death penalty on conviction.
  
Biti, the deputy head of the Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested one week ago, minutes after arriving back in Zimbabwe following a long stay in South Africa, and has been held in prison since then.
  
The charges against him also include accusations of having "incited and conspired ... to rig" the March 29 first round of voting and of having offered bribes ranging from three billion to 50 billion Zimbabwean dollars.
  
In addition, 12 bodies were found in various parts of Zimbabwe on Thursday, and most victims appeared to have been "tortured to death by their abductors," according to Amnesty International.
  
Rice slammed what she called an "orchestrated campaign of violence and harassment" by the Mugabe government, accusing its supporters, "including police and so-called war veterans" of having killed more than 60 opposition supporters, injured thousands and intimidated or displaced many more.
  
Speaking to reporters after the gathering, Rice said the purpose was to send a "very strong message that what is going in Zimbabwe is unacceptable," but she said no concrete action was planned Thursday.
  
However she noted that the Security Council would revisit the issue next week ahead of the polls.
  
The 15-member council was expected to hear a briefing on the current trip to Harare by UN troubleshooter Haile Menkerios, who is seeking to persuade Mugabe to allow peaceful and fair balloting.
  
Meanwhile Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibrill Bossole, who co-chaired Thursday's meeting with Rice, urged the Southern African regional bloc (SADC) and South Africa, the region's powerhouse, to continue their efforts to find a solution to the crisis.
  
Representing Britain at the meeting was its attorney general, Baroness Patricia Scotland, who called the situation in Zimbabwe "dire."
  
"What is incredibly important is that the voice and the condemnation is a voice which is conjoined with the whole of Africa," she told reporters.
  
"It's absolutely critically important that Zimbabwe listens to the African voice, which is saying very clearly that what is happening in Zimbabwe is besmirching the good name and the democratic credentials of the whole region," she added.
  
Meanwhile South African President Thabo Mbeki was reported to be trying to arrange a first-ever meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai that would allow for talks on canceling the June 27 balloting with a view to forming a national unity government.
  
South African media reports said Tsvangirai told Mbeki he was prepared to meet the Zimbabwean president, but Mugabe was resistant to talks with his run-off opponent.
  
Rice stressed that Washington stood fully behind SADC and urged it as well as the African Union "to send as many observers as possible, as early as possible and insist they be given full freedom to operate" in Zimbabwe.
  
She said Mugabe was turning his country "into a failed state that threatens not only the lives of Zimbabweans but also the security and stability of all Southern Africa."