Mugabe facing backlash.

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The diplomatic squeeze on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was tightened yester-day as a controversial Chinese arms shipment was called back and the top US envoy for Africa began a tour of the region.A As the electoral commission continued to slowly release the results of a partial recount from last month's disputed elections, Mugabe's camp appeared divided over the merits of a possible national unity government.

And the regime in Harare also faced growing accusations that opposition supporters were being deliberately targeted by followers of Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party. China had been under massive international pressure not to go through with the planned delivery of a massive cache of weapons from a ship, the An Yue Jiang, despite defending the purchase by the Mugabe regime.

But after the United States publicly called for the ship to turn back, and lobbied neighbouring countries not to help it reach its final destination, the Chinese government announced that the mission was being abandoned. "To my knowledge, the Chinese company has decided to bring back the boat," Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, said.

There was no immediate reaction from Zimbabwe's government but it will be a major blow given its insistence earlier this week that it had a "sovereign right to buy weapons from any legitimate source worldwide". The news of the ship's about turn was also a diplomatic coup for the United States as Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer, the State Department's top diplomat for Africa, began a tour of the region.

Frazer was holding talks on Thursday morning with South African government officials where the situation in Zimbabwe was expected to feature prominently. Frazer was then expected to visit both long-time Zimbabwe ally Angola and then its northern neighbour Zambia whose president, Levy Mwanawasa, is the current chairman of the SADC regional bloc.

While South African Pres-ident Thabo Mbeki has caused some dismay among Western governments over his softly-softly approach towards Mugabe, his likely successor Jacob Zuma has been taking a harder line. In talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London, the president of South Africa's ruling ANC party, said "the situation is not acceptable" in Zimbabwe although he declined back calls for an arms embargo.

There has been growing exasperation over the situation in Zimbabwe where no results have been released from a presidential election held nearly four weeks ago on March 29.

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