South African President Thabo Mbeki is meeting leaders of Zimbabwe's rival political parties in Harare today in an effort to revive stalled power-sharing talks.
President Mbeki is meeting leaders of the negotiating parties – Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change and a smaller MDC offshoot.
While the two MDC groups were upbeat about the meetings, the ruling ZANU-PF and government officials were reticent to speak about it.
Talks deadlocked last month when the MDC, the biggest party in parliament following an election in March, balked at a proposal which would see President Robert Mugabe retain control of the country's security ministries.
President Mbeki's trip comes after Mr Mugabe threatened last week to form a cabinet if MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai delayed signing a document to pave the way for a power-sharing deal.
Speaking at a rally on Sunday, Mr Tsvangirai called for fresh elections, supervised by international observers, if the deadlocked talks did not reach a breakthrough.
