US officials have for weeks urged South Africa to use its influence to defuse the crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe.

The secretary of state also hoped to "bring some international attention" to Zimbabwe when she and Djibrill Bassole, her counterpart from Burkina Faso, co-chair "roundtable" talks Thursday at the UN Security Council in New York.

"This is from our point of view a matter for the Security Council of the United Nations to deal with," Rice told reporters during a meeting in Washington with Prime Minister Raila Odinga of Kenya.

Rice's deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters later that the meeting -- involving UN permanent representatives,

 other UN members and relief groups -- would propose solutions for both the political and humanitarian crisis.

President George W. Bush, meanwhile, talked about Zimbabwe in a telephone conversation Wednesday with Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, chairman of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community, which is deploying elections observers to Zimbabwe.

US officials have accused Mugabe of wrecking the country's economy and of depriving opposition supporters of food aid.

Casey expected the New York talks to focus on "what can be done to be able to change the regime's behavior" and ensure Zimbabweans have an election free from intimidation.

Odinga, who survived an election campaign in Kenya that triggered international fury, proposed sending international peacekeepers to Zimbabwe to ensure proper elections, but Rice declined to comment on his proposal.

"It is time for the leaders of Africa to say to President Mugabe that the people of Zimbabwe deserve a free and fair election, that you cannot intimidate opponents, you cannot put opponents in jail, you cannot threaten them with charges of treason and be respected in the international community," Rice said.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has been repeatedly detained during campaigning for the June 27 run-off election against Mugabe.

And Tendai Biti, the MDC's number two, on Wednesday appeared in court facing a treason charge ahead of next week's presidential run-off, but a judge suspended the case until the following day.

The opposition has called Biti's arrest part of a campaign of harassment, intimidation and violence.

In a first round of elections on March 29, Mugabe's ZANU-PF party lost its majority in parliament -- for the first time since independence in 1980 -- to the MDC, the main opposition movement.

Tsvangirai also beat Mugabe in the first round, but election officials said he fell short of an outright majority and must face Mugabe in the run-off.

"Zimbabwe remains an eyesore on the African continent," Kenya's Odinga told reporters in Washington.

"The time has come for the international community to act on Zimbabwe in the way they did in Bosnia," Odinga said. "What we need in Zimbabwe is actually an international peacekeeping force so that ... proper elections can be held."