Mugabe asks Tsvangirai to take up PM post

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe announced yesterday he had invited rival Morgan Tsvangirai to be sworn in as prime minister in a shared government, but expressed doubt whether he would accept.

The United States, which has called on Mr Mugabe to step down, said it suspected the offer was a ruse.

Opposition leader Mr Tsvangirai threatened to ask for a suspension of power-sharing talks if the government did not stop what he called the persecution of political opponents.

The deadlock between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai has held up any chance of ending the spiralling crisis in the southern African country, where a spreading cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,100 people and food and fuel are in short supply.

Mr Mugabe told supporters he had sent letters to Mr Tsvangirai inviting him to be sworn in as prime minister but expressed doubt that a breakthrough could be reached.

"I have sent letters so that they can come and I can swear (in) and appoint them. We have not reached a stage where we can say with a degree of certainty that they want to be part of this," Mr Mugabe said. But Mr Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change said that it had not received any letters.

Mr Tsvangirai has long accused Mr Mugabe of trying to sideline the opposition to a minor role in a coalition government. Deadlock on implementing their September power-sharing agreement has centred on control of key Cabinet posts.

The opposition leader said yesterday negotiations were endangered by what he called a wave of abductions of MDC supporters. The MDC blames Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.

"If these abductions do not cease immediately, and if all the abductees are not released or charged in a court of law by January 1, 2009, I will be asking the MDC's National Council to pass a resolution to suspend all negotiations and contact with ZANU-PF," Mr Tsvangirai said in a news conference in Gaborone.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he suspected Mr Mugabe's offer to swear in Mr Tsvangirai as prime minister was a ruse.

"Based on history, one would take such a proposal with... a grain of salt," he told reporters.

Zimbabwe's state media have raised the possibility that early elections could be held if the power-sharing deal fails. ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority in a March election for the first time since independence in 1980. Mr Tsvangirai also defeated Mr Mugabe in a presidential ballot but without an absolute majority. He pulled out of the run-off in June, saying scores of his supporters had been killed.