Following his meeting with Mr. Mugabe, the SouthAfrican president repeated his earlier assurances that negotiationsbetween Zimbabwe's political parties are going well. On Tuesday hesaid the talks were merely adjourned.
"They will be adjourningshortly for a couple of days because they want to go back Harare to goand consult with their principals about the work that has been, andthen come back by the end of the week to resume the negotiations," President Mbeki said. "But they are proceeding."
President Mbeki isevidently more concerned about progress in the talks than he concedesin public. Before flying to Harare, he met in Pretoria with the MDC'sMorgan Tsvangirai.
The talks stalled earlier this week after Mr.Mugabe's ZANU-PF negotiating team offered Tsvangirai a vice presidencyin a proposed government of national unity. It was rejected by the MDCleader. Mr. Mugabe already has two vice presidents who are merelyfigureheads without any executive authority.
Speaking earlierat a monetary policy meeting in Harare, the Zimbabwean leader said heis committed to achieving a negotiated outcome to the country's crisis.
"Wecommitted ourselves to a process of dialogue under the facilitation ofPresident [of South Africa, Thabo] Mbeki, whom I expect today anyway,"he said. "There is total commitment on the part of government andZANU-PF and I hope there is similar total, there is similar commitmenton the part of the other parties."
But analysts have warned that Mr.Mugabe is determined to hang on to executive power.
Tsvangiraibelieves that he should head a transitional unity government because hegot most of the votes in the preliminary presidential race in May. Hismajority in that poll was not enough to avoid a runoff.
Expertshave warned that in addition to convincing Mr. Mugabe of the need forcompromise, Mr. Mbeki will have to find a way of drawing in the securityforces, particularly the Joint Operations Command, widely believe to bethe real power in Zimbabwe. The Joint Operations Command is run by asenior party official, the various military commanders, the chiefs ofpolice and prisons, and the country's senior intelligence official.