Johannesburg  - The Elders on Monday urged Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to go into government with President Robert Mugabe in the interests of the country, despite being offered a junior partnership.

Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, former US president Jimmy Carter and Mozambican social activist Graca Machel were briefing journalists in Johannesburg about their three-day fact-finding mission on Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis.

After being barred from travelling to Zimbabwe, the three met in South Africa with the leaders of Zimbabwe's neighbours, South Africa and Botswana, Zimbabwe's opposition leaders, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara, and representatives of NGOs, Western donors and UN agencies.

Carter said the reports they had received were "all indications that the crisis in Zimbabwe is much worse than anything we had ever imagined".

People were queueing for hours at bank ATMs to withdraw a maximum 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars, "about 2 cents in US dollars, not even enough to pay for a third of a loaf of bread."

While inflation was officially put at 231 million per cent, the actual inflation rate was "2,000 times greater than that," he said.

All public universities and the country's four main hospitals had closed and Zimbabweans were succumbing at an alarming rate to a cholera outbreak that has claimed nearly 300 lives since August and infected 6,500 people, he said.

The crisis in Zimbabwe has tracked the political crisis caused by the breakdown in power-sharing talks between Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Tsvangirai's MDC.

The MDC is shying away from joining a unity government with Mugabe, in which Mugabe remains president and Tsvangirai becomes prime minister, because Mugabe is insisting on retaining control of the army and exercising joint control over the police.

Calling on the parties, who are due to hold fresh talks Tuesday, to implement their September unity deal, Carter said the MDC could try to redress the power imbalance after the government is up and running by using its parliamentary majority to push through change.

"If there are any obvious inequities subsequently in the proper sharing or dividing of power they can be corrected some of them at least not only by immediate changes to the law but over a period of time," until a new constitution was in place or over the next 18 months, Carter said.

Machel also warned against wishing Mugabe, 84, out of the picture. "As we stand the institutions of power are in certain hands. You have to work with those hands to open them and release it."

The Elders is a brains trust of leading activists and former world leaders founded by anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on his 89th birthday in 2007.

Mugabe's government denied them visas to enter Zimbabwe at the weekend, saying they had not consulted officials about their visit. The rebuff followed allegations in state media that their visit was a "partisan mission" and a "rescue package" for the MDC.

Annan criticized Zimbabwe's neighbours in the 15-nation Southern African Development Community for its softly-softly approach towards Mugabe, who has clung onto power despite placing second to Tsvangirai in a March presidential vote and his party being defeated by the MDC in parliamentary elections.

"I think its obvious that SADC could have and should have maybe done more," he said.

Carter advised SADC, the African Union and the UN to send teams to assess the situation in Zimbabwe, a once bountiful country where over 3 million people now need food assistance because of the government's disastrous policies and recurring drought.

"I don't think its wise to keep this horrible tragedy a secret," he said.

But The Elders took heart in the firmer tone taken by South Africa's new leadership on Zimbabwe.

South Africa, the regional powerbroker and traditional ally of Mugabe's government, last week announced it was withholding an aid package to Zimbabwe until a unity government was in place.

"The tone which came from the government is a shift from what we are used to hearing," Machel, who is also Mandela's wife, noted approvingly, urging other SADC members to take a similar stance.

Earlier, South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma said the ANC would send envoys to Zimbabwe because the situation demanded more than a "wait and see" approach. (dpa)