Factbox: Mugabe celebrates 86th birthday

(Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe marked his 86th birthday on Sunday, still in office after 30 years and still haggling with his Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The bitter rivals, who formed a unity administration in February last year to end a long political crisis, have yet to implement reforms that would clear the way for free and fair elections.

Here are some details about Mugabe's life and career:

* MUGABE'S RECORD:

-- Once hailed as a model African democrat, Mugabe has remained in power for years despite a huge economic and health crisis.

-- Critics have accused Mugabe of destroying one of Africa's most promising economies with disputed policies, such his seizures of white-owned farms for redistribution to inexperienced blacks, and they see no hope for the country without a complete change of government.

-- Mugabe last week defended his government's drive to transfer majority control of foreign-owned firms to local blacks, saying wise investors would continue to put money into the country and rejecting suggestions that implementation of the indigenization law passed in 2007 would frighten off foreign investors.

-- Tsvangirai said a week earlier that the regulations were null and void because they had been published without being reviewed by him or the cabinet.

-- Political analysts say the dispute shows rising tension in the year-old coalition, which has failed to attract much-needed foreign aid and investment because of frequent arguments over reforms.

-- Just last month Zimbabwe suspended moves to draw up a new constitution as a result of political bickering over funding, dealing a blow to hopes for free and fair elections after the adoption of the charter. The form of the new constitution is a point of contention between the rival parties in the unity government: Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change led by Tsvangirai.

* SHARING POWER:

-- Mugabe's party lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in the March 2008 election and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the presidential vote but by too few votes to avoid a run-off.

-- Mugabe was sworn in on June 29, 2008, for another five-year term after the widely condemned run-off ballot from which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew because of attacks on his supporters.

-- Mugabe and Tsvangirai finally agreed to a power-sharing deal in September 2008. However it took about five months for deadlock to be broken over the makeup of the new government and Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister on February 11, 2009.

-- One year on, the power-sharing government counts a more stable economy, reform plans and its mere survival as achievements but the political marriage of Mugabe and Tsvangirai is in trouble, with tension simmering over how to share executive power and the pace of democratic reforms.

LIFE DETAILS:

* Mugabe was born in February 1924 on the Kutama Mission, northwest of Harare, and educated by Jesuits. He earned seven university degrees, three while in prison.

* Mugabe was jailed for 10 years in 1964 for opposing white minority rule. A guerrilla war began in 1972 against Ian Smith's white government of then-Rhodesia.

* Mugabe became leader of the ZANU liberation movement in the mid-1970s after his release from jail.

* The renamed ZANU-PF won independence elections in 1980 and Mugabe became prime minister. He took office as president in 1987 after a change to the constitution.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)