Zimbabwe talks suspend, but to resume shortly

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-11 21:53

HARARE -- Zimbabwe's rival parties suspended their talks, which went from Sunday morning till early morning Monday, aimed to end the country's political and economic turmoil, agencies reported.

President Robert Mugabe, leader of the ruling ZANU-PF, said that talks with opposition leaders on a power-sharing deal had ended inconclusively, but that they would resume late Monday, according to reports.

Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Arthur Mutambara, who heads a breakaway wing of the MDC, were engaged in closed-door discussions mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose arrival in Harare on Saturday was viewed as a strong signal that a deal between the parties is imminent.

Mbeki met the three principals separately before bringing them together.

The three later met Mbeki together with their representatives who have been meeting in South Africa.

Mbeki later left the teams alone and the three party leaders had a meeting among themselves, Zimbabwe's The Herald newspaper reported.

At one point, Tsvangirai and his team briefly left the hotel raising alarm among those gathered at the venue that the talks had collapsed.

However, his secretary-general Tendai Biti emerged soon afterwards to calm the anxious onlookers, assuring them that " something positive" would come out of the talks and that they were still on, according to the report.

Zimbabwe held presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29, in which presidential candidate Tsvangirai received a leading number of votes but failed to win outright. His MDC party won a majority seats in the lower house of the parliament.

Tsvangirai boycotted the June 27 presidential runoff, citing political violence as the major reason. The result is Mugabe, the sole candidate in the race, won an overwhelming victory and was sworn in for a new presidential term immediately after the election result was announced on June 29. Tsvangirai refused to acknowledge Mugabe's victory.

Mugabe has not formed a new cabinet and sworn in a new parliament.

His representatives and those of the opposition party began power-sharing talks in a secret place in South Africa's administrative capital of Pretoria, after the parties reached consensus, in the presence of Mbeki, in Harare, on the framework of the talks.

One of the sticking points in the talks is who will be the leader with executive power in the future government.