WASHINGTON - US SECRETARY of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday that she will consult US allies about imposing international asset freezes and other sanctions against Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe.

In an interview with AFP, Dr Rice said it 'is high time' for the world community to take firmer action to end a political, economic and humanitarian crisis that is killing Zimbabweans and spilling across Zimbabwe's borders.

The United States and its allies are pushing for President Mugabe to step down, saying his refusal to fulfill a September power-sharing deal with the opposition is leaving the country in ruins.

'I don't know how much longer people can let this go on, claiming that it is somehow an internal matter. It is not,' Dr Rice said.

'It is clearly having caused problems across the border and even if it were an internal matter, what is happening to the Zimbabwean people is unconscionable,' the chief US diplomat added.

Hundreds of cholera cases have spread to neighbouring South Africa, which is increasingly isolated in calling for more time to achieve a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Dr Rice and other US officials have called on Zimbabwe's neighbors to do more to solve the crisis without publicly criticizing Pretoria, the most powerful government in the region.

Dr Rice raised the possibility of further sanctions when asked if the 15-member UN Security Council was in a better position to act without South Africa, whose temporary role in the council ends in January.

'I am going to consult with our allies, particularly with some of our African allies and with the British and we will see,' Dr Rice said after the council failed to take action at meetings she attended in New York last week.

'But I think it high time that the international community step up the sanctions on this regime,' Dr Rice added.

US diplomats had hoped the council would adopt a non-binding statement condemning Mugabe for failing to protect his people from a cholera outbreak, but a Western diplomat said the plan had run into South African opposition.

'We (the United States) have, as you know, some asset freezes and the likes and there has been some discussions about whether some of that might be multilateralized,' Dr Rice said when asked about possible action.

'So we will look at this,' Dr Rice added.

In November, the US Treasury Tuesday banned any dealings with four Mugabe loyalists, including his Malaysian doctor and a Thai gem dealer, and froze their assets in the United States.

The Treasury statement also singled out two Zimbabwean businessmen involved in mining, as well as tobacco trading, arms sales and trafficking.

Under the Treasury designation, US companies and individuals are barred from having any financial dealings with the four individuals and any of their assets within US jurisdiction are frozen.

US officials say the sanctions are beginning to bite, indicating that Zimbabwean government officials have been forced to bring home children studying in the United States and Australia.

Zimbabwe, ruled by Mr Mugabe for some 28 years, faces a massive food shortage, with nearly half of the population expected to need food aid in January, as well as cholera epidemic that UN figures say has claimed more than 1,000 lives.

The economy has been shattered by the world's highest rate of inflation, last estimated at 231 million per cent in July. -- AFP