Annan praises S Africa's role over Zimbabwe crisis

CAPE TOWN, Mar 14 (Reuters) UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today praised South Africa for working to resolve crises in Zimbabwe and elsewhere on the continent and said countries could no longer claim their problems were internal.

''When any country gets caught in a downward spiral of poverty, mismanagement and conflict, this is bound to be a problem for its neighbours,'' Annan told South Africa's Parliament.

''And the best neighbours are those who play a constructive part in helping to halt and reverse the spiral before it leads to a complete meltdown,'' said Annan, who is in South Africa on the first stop of a four-nation African trip.

Earlier he told reporters he hoped to visit Zimbabwe before his term ends at the end of 2006 to discuss the southern African nation's political and economic crisis.

He praised South African President Thabo Mbeki for trying to negotiate a settlement in Zimbabwe with President Robert Mugabe.

''The situation for the Zimbabweans is extremely difficult.

It is difficult for Zimbabwe. It is difficult for the region and it is difficult for the world,'' Annan told reporters.

''I know that South Africa has done a lot to help with the Zimbabwe situation as any good neighbour would want to do.'' Critics say Mbeki's policy of ''quiet diplomacy'' has been ineffective in dealing with what they see as Mugabe's abuses.

Zimbabwe faces chronic food and fuel shortages, high inflation and political isolation. Western nations have accused Mugabe of abusing human rights and rigging elections to extend his two decades in power.

Annan said it was the responsibility of stronger nations in each region to assist weaker governments without dominating them.

He urged Africans to forge a new approach to development to help wipe out the poverty, hunger, thirst, violence and disease.

It was easy to blame Africa's ills on past or foreign ills such as the slave trade, imperialism and the imbalance of power and wealth in a ''flagrantly unjust world''.

''But that cannot absolve us, the Africans of today, from our responsibility to ourselves and to our children,'' he said.

REUTERS PG RN2252