Prime Minister Stephen Harper condemned the presidential run-off election in Zimbabwe Friday and said Canada could take diplomatic action against Robert Mugabe's government.

Speaking to a conference of the Jewish organization B'nai Brith Canada in Ottawa, Harper said Canada and other countries must press for a free and democratic vote in the southern African country.

"Our government has condemned the corrupt vote in the strongest possible terms," he said. "And we are working with the international community to bring in strong measures to pressure the Mugabe regime which has illegitimately stolen the election."

What took place Friday in Zimbabwe’s run-off election was "an ugly perversion of democracy," Harper said.

Also on Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson was in Japan for a meeting of the G8 group of wealthy countries, where Zimbabwe featured prominently on the agenda.

A closing statement, signed by Canada and the other seven member countries, deplored "the actions of the Zimbabwean authorities ... which have made a free and fair presidential run-off election impossible."

Some foreign policy analysts in this country have called for the Harper government to help put pressure on the government of Zimbabwe’s neighbour, South Africa, where President Thabo Mbeki has studiously avoided joining international criticism of Mugabe.

Analysts say Canada could use the respect it earned in the 1980s and early 1990s when then prime minister Brian Mulroney was at the forefront of international efforts to end the racist apartheid system in South Africa.

With files from the Canadian Press