“The international community has condemned the Mugabe regime’s ruthless campaign of politically motivated violence and intimidation,” Mr. Bush said in a statement from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., adding that he had directed his secretaries of treasury and state to develop sanctions “against this illegitimate government of Zimbabwe and those who support it.”

The announcement came a day after Zimbabweans voted in a presidential runoff that has been widely denounced by Western leaders because of state-sponsored violence and efforts to intimidate voters with threats of beatings if they failed to cast their ballots for Mr. Mugabe, the sole candidate. Dozens of opposition supporters were killed in the weeks leading to the runoff.

The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, dropped out of the race, citing continuing attacks against his supporters, and he later sought refuge in the Dutch Embassy. By taking the rare step of imposing sanctions on the government, the United States would put Zimbabwe in a league with nations like North Korea and Iran — a significant toughening of current policy toward Zimbabwe. The Bush administration has already imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, but they apply only to about 140 members of the governing elite and the businesses they own and control.

“This certainly steps up pretty dramatically the scale of punitive action,” said J. Stephen Morrison, who directs the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies here, and worked on Africa issues in the State Department under President Clinton. “It’s long overdue, but having Bush get out there and say some hard things is very important.”

The call for an international arms embargo, which Mr. Bush coupled with a proposed ban on travel by officials of the Mugabe government, is unlikely to be successful. American officials said it would almost certainly run into opposition at the United Nations from South Africa, Russia and China; South Africa’s position has long been that the Zimbabwe election is an internal affair.

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