Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was greeted at the African Union summit Monday with little regard for how he had just won re-election to a sixth term.

Mr. Mugabe traveled to Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, for the conference one day after he was sworn in as Zimbabwe's president. Yet he won the runoff election after weeks of a state-sponsored campaign of murder and intimidation against his opposition that left 80 dead and forced nearly 200,000 people from their homes. Mr. Mugabe never intended to allow a fair election.

While the election was condemned by Western nations, Mr. Mugabe's "victory" was met with milder expressions of concerns by his African counterparts, who showed no interest in further actions against him.

The AU leaders urged him to participate in a power-sharing agreement with the country's opposition. The chairman of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping, called on Africa to "do everything in its power to help the Zimbabwe parties to work together in the supreme interests in their country so as to overcome its current challenges."

Challenges? The Zimbabwe economy is in shambles. Its people are starving; inflation is out of control. Roving Mugabe supporters beat and murder opposition members. They received little attention.

A resolution before the African Union only condemned violence in general terms with a call for dialogue without criticizing the man mainly responsible for the violence. This despite reports from the African Union's observers that Friday's election did not meet the group's own standards.

However, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, France and other countries were more outspoken. The United States denounced the election as a sham while the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called Mr. Mugabe's re-election a "farce, a criminal electoral comedy."

The Bush administration is readying sanctions against Zimbabwe. It has called for a U.N. arms embargo and travel ban on government officials. China, which holds a Security Council veto, opposes U.N. penalties, preferring instead what its foreign minister call "serious dialogue to find a proper solution."

Mr. Mugabe, though, does not appear interested in dialogue absent international pressure that is lacking.