(BRUSSELS) - Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe election victory was "an exercise in power-grabbing" which is impossible to recognise, the European Commission said Monday, calling on the African Union to seek a political solution.

"It is not possible to recognise the legitimacy of the result of this election given the conditions in which this second round took place," EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel said in a statement.

"This victory has simply been an exercise in power-grabbing and is far from the spirit of change and renaissance currently seen across Africa," he added.

Mugabe was attending an African summit in Egypt amid growing calls for African leaders to act after the Zimbabwean president's widely discredited election win.

The 84-year-old was sworn in for a sixth term on Sunday, having been declared the overwhelming winner of a one-man election run-off after opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew because of violence.

"Once again, and together with my European partners, I call upon the competent African organisations -- notably the summit of the African Union to find a political solution to this crisis," said Michel.

Any such solution "must reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people expressed in acceptable democratic conditions," he said, an apparent reference to the first round presidential vote in which Tsvangirai came out on top before withdrawing from the contest.

Michel added that the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, stands ready to offer its "full support to the African Union and all those in Africa approaching the situation in this way."

South Africa called on Monday for Zimbabwe's opposition and Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party to hold talks towards the formation of a transitional government.

A team of African Union monitors who oversaw Zimbabwe's election said they had been "encouraged" by the willingness of the opposition and ruling party to hold talks in the aftermath of the poll.

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