Zimbabwean hard-liners want non-MDC gov't

PRETORIA, South Africa, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Hard-line supporters of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are urging him to form a government without members of the opposition party, an analyst says.

With power-sharing negotiations between Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change deadlocked, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai says the only resolution might be to call a new election. But ZANU-PF hard-liners want to avoid that, International Crisis Group analyst Sydney Masamvu told the Voice of America in Pretoria, South Africa.

"This is a statement coming from the hard-liners within the ZANU-PF who, from the onset, wanted to see this deal collapse," Masamvu told VOA. He said they want to use the party's "landslide" win in the June 27 presidential runoff as a pretext to take control -- an election from which Tsvangirai withdrew after hundreds of MDC supporters were slain by militias.

"There was no way (Mugabe) was going to form a government alone which would be recognized by the rest of the world, and as such, I think this statement is actually meant to perpetuate their self-interest," Masamvu said. "But they are disconnected from the reality on the ground."