HARARE, Zimbabwe, May 24 (Bernama) -- Visiting United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Wednesday met President Mugabe and stressed the importance of holding violence free elections in the country.

Zimbabwe is due to hold elections either at the end of this year or early next year after conclusion of the ongoing Constitution making process, New Ziana news agency reported.

Speaking to journalists after a closed door meeting which lasted about one and half hours at State House, Pillay, who is on a maiden five-day working visit, described her meeting with President Mugabe as "very important."

"I commended the President for making a call that there should be no violence in the future elections and urged him to continue to make such calls. I also urged him to ensure that future elections will be free and fair and free from violence," she said.

The last elections in 2008 witnessed unprecedented levels of violence between supporters of Zanu PF and the then opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change.

The violence ended with a political settlement which the SADC brokered and which saw the birth of the coalition government in 2009.

Pillay said President Mugabe attributed some of the problems which the country was currently facing to the country's past.

Pillay, who arrived on Sunday, has already met top government and civic society leaders and is due to meet a number of officials before issuing a statement on her findings on Friday.

-- BERNAMA