Power sharing talks between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the opposition are in danger of collapse, an opposition source said yesterday, raising fears an economic crisis will deepen without a government.
The assessment came just after regional leaders started talks with Mr Mugabe and opposition parties in a renewed push for implementation of September's power-sharing agreement.
The source close to the negotiations told Reuters they were "almost certain to collapse". There was no immediate comment from Mr Mugabe's officials on the talks.
A unity government, delayed over the distribution of Cabinet posts, is seen as the best chance of preventing total collapse in once prosperous Zimbabwe, where prices double every day and more than 2,000 people have died in a cholera epidemic.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) yesterday insisted on controlling several key ministries before any government can be formed with Mr Mugabe, suggesting no progress had been made on the main hurdle.
The party said in a position paper it remained committed to an agreement as long as it controlled powerful ministries such as home affairs, finance and information.
It also described abductions of its members, which it blames on Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF, as a "slap in the face" to the negotiations, proving "beyond a shadow of a doubt" its rivals had not respected the spirit of the September pact.
The MDC reiterated it would not join a unity government until all its demands were met.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, Mozambique leader Armando Guebuza and Thabo Mbeki, regional mediator and South Africa's former President, are hoping to persuade the rival parties to agree. But regional grouping SADC has failed to secure a compromise, despite repeated international calls for stronger action and pleas for help from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr Mugabe, Mr Tsvangirai and the head of a breakaway MDC faction Arthur Mutambara were trying to thrash out an agreement to save the pact.
"Now is the time to find common ground among Zimbabweans. Now is the time for flexibility, compromise and pragmatism," Mr Mutambara told reporters at the venue.