Zimbabwe power-sharing talks near collapse

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Talks to share power in Zimbabwe are on the brink of collapse, President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai say.

A fourth day of intense negotiations between the two men and a smaller opposition party mediated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki Friday were fruitless, with Mugube saying they went "very well in the wrong direction" and Tsvangirai adding, "it appears we are far apart," the BBC reported.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change signed an historic power-sharing agreement last month brokered by Mbeki, but since then have been unable to agree on which should have control of the country's police and finance ministries.

They have called on the Southern African Development Community and the African Union "to use their collective wisdom to help unlock the deadlock," Tsvangirai told the BBC.

Mbeki, whose clout has been diminished since his resignation as South African president, was more upbeat, declining to declare the situation a "deadlock" and saying the issues were "capable of solving themselves quite easily."