Zimbabwe Opposition Leader to Meet Mugabe for Power-sharing Talks

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said today he remains committed to a power-sharing deal and will meet President Robert Mugabe next week to try to resolve their differences.

South Africa's president, Kgalema Motlanthe, will also attend the talks, which are seen as crucial if further decline in Zimbabwe is to be averted. The country's rapidly crumbling infrastructure has allowed a normally preventable cholera outbreak to claim more than 2,100 lives, while nearly half the population requires food aid.

Tsvangirai, who will return to Zimbabwe on Saturday for the first time since November, said he regarded Mugabe, 84, "as part of the problem but also part of the solution". He added: "I still believe that a political agreement offers the best means of preventing Zimbabwe from becoming a failed state. I am committed to forming a new inclusive government in Zimbabwe and all I lack is a willing partner."

The two leaders agreed to form a unity government on 15 September after a disputed presidential election that saw Tsvangirai win the first round of voting but pull out of the run-off because of widespread state-sponsored violence. Under the deal Tsvangirai was to be given a newly created prime minister's post, while the cabinet positions were to be split equally between the government and opposition. But the agreement stalled after Mugabe refused to give up any of the most powerful ministries.

Addressing a news conference in Johannesburg, Tsvangirai accused Mugabe's government of continuing to intimidate and harass supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change party. Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that 43 opposition officials and rights activists have been unlawfully detained since September, with 11 missing since their arrest.

On Tuesday a judge freed Nigel Mutemagau, a two-year-old boy held in jail for several weeks with his parents, who are both MDC members and stand accused of plotting to overthrow Mugabe. Among the other detainees is Jestina Mukoko, a human rights campaigner, who disappeared for several weeks after her arrest. In an affidavit lodged last week she alleged that she had been held in solitary confinement for 19 days at Chikurubi maximum security prison while being assaulted and tortured by police.

Zimbabwe's chief justice, Godfrey Chidyausiku, has ordered urgent medical care for Mukoko and others who claim to have been tortured in custody.

Tsvangirai said he would not allow the forthcoming round of talks to be drawn out. "Should it [the deal] collapse, the MDC will have to find alternative plans to continue with the struggle [for democracy] until the objective is achieved. We can't sit back and mourn and regret," he said.