Lusaka, Zambia ? Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe skipped a regional summit Saturday addressing the deepening crisis over the country’s contentious presidential election, giving southern African leaders little chance to step up the pressure on him.

The summit reflected Mugabe’s growing isolation, as well as cracks in the uniform solidarity shown toward him by the Southern African Development Community. Mugabe, who has been in power 28 years, is the region’s longest-serving president.

After meeting with Mugabe in Zimbabwe, South African President Thabo Mbeki said “there is no crisis.” But at the summit, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa urged his counterparts to “focus on helping Zimbabwe to find an answer that generally reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people.”

In his opening speech, Mwanawasa said he had called the summit because of the failure of Zimbabwean officials to publish the results of March 29 presidential election.

Independent tallies indicate Mugabe lost, but garnered enough votes to force a runoff. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he won outright and traveled the region asking neighboring leaders to push for Mugabe to step down.

Tsvangirai was invited to address the summit, an unprecedented move that further alienated Mugabe. But there appeared little likelihood the leaders would call for Mugabe’s resignation.

Officials at the conference indicated they would focus on the delayed election results and not Mugabe’s rule.

U.S. Ambassador Carmen Martinez, among more than a dozen diplomats on the sidelines of the summit, said the United States was looking for “at least one step forward.”

“If SADC cannot even get a state to release their election results, it’s going to be very difficult for SADC,” she said.