The Zimbabwean opposition leader won his nation's disputed presidential election, the top US envoy to Africa has said.
Jendayi Frazer, the assistant US secretary of state for African Affairs, said on Thursday she was basing her conclusions on the independent tally.
The opposition has claimed its leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe, the current president, outright in presidential election held on March 29.
Independent Zimbabwean observers also say Tsvangirai won, though not by enough to avoid a run-off.
Meanwhile, Zimbabweans still await the results, with the opposition accusing Mugabe of withholding them while he plots how to keep power.
The octogenarian Mugabe has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
Frazer was responding to questions about whether some kind of power-sharing agreement could resolve the impasse.
"We think in this situation we have a clear victor," she said. "Morgan Tsvangirai won and perhaps outright, at which point you don't need a government of national unity. You have to accept the result."
But she added: "There may need to be a political solution, a negotiated solution."