African leaders promote dialogue

A delegation of key African leaders met with Zimbabwe's president and opposition leader on Monday in an attempt at resolving the country's political crisis.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Malawi President Bakili Muluzi held closed-door talks at State House with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, followed by a meeting at a hotel with Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The talks are aimed at creating the conditions for dialogue between the ruling party and the MDC, which rejected Mugabe's controversial presidential poll victory last year as fraudulent, as a step towards stabilising the country.

"It is not a secret that Zimbabwe is facing very serious economic and political problems, and I think it is our responsibility to assist a neighbour," the Associated Press quoted Muluzi as saying before leaving Malawi.

MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi told IRIN: "The three visiting leaders sought to find out if the MDC was committed to dialogue, and the response was that the MDC was committed to unconditional dialogue and was ready, at any time and at any place, to begin."

A government official said there was not yet an official statement on the talks.

Media speculation has mounted that an "exit strategy" for Mugabe, 79, would be the key issue to be discussed by the visiting heads of state, clearing the way for the MDC's participation in a transitional authority that would lead the country to new elections.

The Zimbabwean government has dismissed any suggestion that Mugabe would stand down before his term expires in 2008, and South Africa has rejected the idea that it would promote regime change in its northern neighbour.