(Adds details, background) UNITED NATIONS, June 11 (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official will visit Zimbabwe next week to discuss the political situation and forthcoming presidential elections, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Haile Menkerios, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, will visit the southern African country from June 16-20, spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. Zimbabwe will hold a presidential election run-off on June 27 between long-time President Robert Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round but failed to secure an absolute majority. The run-up to the second round has been marred by violence, with Tsvangirai accusing Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party of widespread attacks on his supporters. Okabe said the visit by Menkerios, an Eritrean in charge of African affairs for the U.N. political department, follows talks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held with Mugabe at a world food summit in Rome last week. The U.N. has a permanent presence in Zimbabwe but Menkerios's trip represents the world body's deepest involvement so far in Zimbabwe's recent political crisis. Tsvangirai has demanded that international observers monitor the June 27 vote. U.N. diplomats say they expect the United Nations to support but not itself conduct election monitoring by outsiders. The U.N. Security Council is due to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, whose economy is in free-fall, at closed consultations on Thursday. Western diplomats said they had wanted a broader discussion of Zimbabwe but that South Africa, Russia and China opposed that. (Reporting by Patrick Worsnip, Editing by Alan Elsner)
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe leaves the podium during a U.N. crisis summit on rising food prices at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome June 3, 2008. World leaders opened ...
