Zimbabwe opponent hopes for "honorable exit" for Mugabe

LONDON (Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Wednesday he hoped talks aimed at resolving the country's political crisis would give President Robert Mugabe an "honorable exit".

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party began power-sharing talks with the opposition in South Africa last week, but doubts have surfaced over progress after they were adjourned on Tuesday.

South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday the talks would resume on Sunday.

"The role of Robert Mugabe and the role of Morgan Tsvangirai in the envisaged co-sharing government will have to be discussed by the negotiating parties. I am not in any position of defining what his role would be," Tsvangirai said in an interview with Britain's Channel 4 News.

"What I would hope is that it will allow him (Mugabe) a process of an honorable exit," he said, speaking from Johannesburg in what Channel 4 said was his first broadcast interview since the negotiations began.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai are under pressure from within Africa and the rest of the world to negotiate a national unity government to end a crisis that has ruined Zimbabwe's economy and flooded neighboring states with millions of refugees.

Tsvangirai said Mugabe was "just as human as every one of us" and had similar concerns, "although of course I think he is ignorant, or chooses to be in a denial stage, as far as the violence is concerned."

Asked if he could work with Mugabe, Tsvangirai said: "That I cannot say, because that is part of the negotiation process."

Tsvangirai said there had been obstacles in the talks but said that was natural in any negotiating process.

"There have been sticking points. Some issues have been ironed out, some issues are still outstanding. We hope that as the negotiations proceed they will find a common compromise," he said.

The settlement under discussion was a transitional arrangement that would bring the crisis to a soft landing and allow the parties to deal with issues of rule of law, the constitution, humanitarian intervention and economic recovery, he said.

This interim period should last "no more than two years in our perspective," he said.

A two-week deadline for completing the talks runs out on August 4, but it could be extended.

It has been unclear what compromise could be reached at the power-sharing talks.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says only Tsvangirai can lead a new government because he won a first round presidential vote in March and only pulled out of a June run-off vote because of violence he says killed 122 of his supporters.

ZANU-PF has said it will not accept any deal that fails to recognize Mugabe's re-election.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; editing by Philippa Fletcher)