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HARARE : Former South African leader Thabo Mbeki was to start a second day of talks Wednesday with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his main rival to save a power-sharing deal amid a spat over key cabinet posts.
Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed to reach an agreement after more than seven hours of talks on Tuesday and talks were now centred on control of the finance, home and defence ministries in a unity government.
Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of the agreement after Mugabe last weekend announced he would award key ministries to his own party, leaving the 84-year-old leader with a firm grip on the military, police and other security agencies.
Mbeki, who brokered the deal signed one month ago, flew to Harare on Monday to try to rescue the pact that had been hailed as a milestone toward ending months of deadly political unrest and pulling Zimbabwe out of economic ruin.
Tsvangirai arrived first to meet Mbeki, saying he hoped a breakthrough would be found Wednesday, but warned: "We are still negotiating."
Mugabe was still awaited to show up and was more than 90 minutes late, an AFP reporter said.
Under the deal, Mugabe retains the presidency while Tsvangirai takes the new post of prime minister. But disputes over how to form a cabinet threaten to sink the entire arrangement.
No one involved in the talks has revealed what has been discussed, but the state-run Herald newspaper said the negotiations centred on which party would control the finance ministry.
The portfolio is critical in a country grappling with the world's highest rate of inflation, last estimated at 231 million percent, and burdened with critical shortages of food and basic goods as well as rampant unemployment.
But before the talks began, Tsvangirai said that his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) insisted on dividing control of the defence and home affairs ministries.
The Herald claimed that Mugabe did not need to reach a consensus with Tsvangirai on appointing the cabinet and could name ministers unilaterally.
"Government is formed by the president," the paper said, adding that the MDC was not fit to oversee security agencies.
"We urge them to get into government, learn the ropes, and build trust," it said. "It is time to move forward; we have spent too much time in one place as it is."
The MDC has argued that it needs oversight of at least some security agencies to reassure the party's supporters who were the targets of brutal violence during election campaigning earlier this year.
Tsvangirai won a first round presidential vote in March, but pulled out of a June runoff, saying the violence had left more than 100 of his supporters dead.
Mugabe's victory in the uncontested runoff drew international condemnation, and western nations have heaped pressure on his regime to make good on the power-sharing deal.
The European Union has threatened to impose new sanctions on the regime if the deal falls apart, while the United States accused him of violating the agreement.
"President Mugabe apparently overstepped the bounds of that agreement in claiming several ministers that were not part of the power-sharing agreement that was brokered," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday.
But analysts say they have little hope for the deal, especially with Mbeki's reduced stature after his own party forced him to resign as South Africa's president last month.
"The deal was like a false dawn," said Heidi Holland, a biographer of Mugabe. "Basically (Mugabe) has his own agenda and he will continue to do what he wants."
The protracted political dispute has only deepened the misery of ordinary Zimbabweans, with more than five million people -- nearly half the population -- needing emergency food aid this year, according to the United Nations.
- AFP /ls
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