A two-week delay in releasing the results from Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential election has raised political tensions in the southern African nation, where the economy has collapsed.

A Zimbabwean electoral official said 23 constituencies in the election would be recounted next Saturday, raising new uncertainty over the vote and the possibility that the ruling ZANU-PF could overturn its defeat in the parliamentary poll.

Movement for Democratic Change lawyer Selby Hwacha accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of calling the recount to help ZANU-PF rig the poll.

"What ZEC is now trying to do is to abuse the law in an attempt to start a new process at ZANU-PF's bidding. We will see how they play it out, but we will challenge it," he told Reuters.

Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC says it won the presidential and parliamentary election, and accuses President Robert Mugabe of rolling out military forces across Zimbabwe to try to extend his 28-year rule in a de facto coup.

Zimbabwe's information minister said on Sunday the army will not fight Zimbabweans over election results.

"The soldiers are in the barracks where they belong because the country does not fully require their services in such a peaceful environment," Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail quoted Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu as saying.

"I believe everyone in the country is aware that there is no military junta."

Zimbabwe's generals occupy no official posts in its ruling party, but the heads of the army and security forces are thought to have been key planners in an emerging strategy for Mugabe, 84, to fight back after elections handed the former guerrilla commander his biggest defeat since taking power.

The opposition and human rights organisations have accused Mugabe of orchestrating a systematic campaign of violence in response to ZANU-PF's first parliamentary defeat.

REGIONAL SUMMIT

No results have been released yet from the parallel presidential vote but ZANU-PF says neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai won the necessary absolute majority and a run-off will be necessary. The MDC has rejected both a recount and a runoff.

Mugabe has been unfazed by sanctions imposed by Western foes and regional leaders have failed to pressure him to enact political reforms.

But he faces the biggest crisis since taking power in 1980, when he was hailed as a liberation hero. Zimbabweans hoped the poll would bring relief from a deepening economic crisis.

Instead, a political stalemate has deepened anxieties and there are no signs neighbouring states mediating between Mugabe and the opposition will come to their rescue.

The 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Lusaka, Zambia and called on Sunday for the rapid verification and release of the election results.

Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande told reporters the 13-hour summit had also called on Mugabe to ensure a possible run-off vote would be held "in a secure environment".

The summit ran almost 10 hours over schedule and ended around 5 a.m. (0300 GMT). A senior Zambian official said earlier the delay was caused by a disagreement among leaders over whether the post-election impasse should be called a crisis.

But Pande, in response to questions, said: "It is not a crisis at all."

Thabo Mbeki, president of Zimbabwe's powerful neighbour South Africa, said after meeting Mugabe en route to the summit there was no crisis. Mugabe did not attend.

Zimbabwe has inflation of more than 100,000 percent -- the highest in the world -- an unemployment rate above 80 percent and chronic shortages of food and fuel. Millions have fled abroad, most of them to South Africa.