Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai denies negotiations started

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday denied that substantive negotiations had begun with the ruling ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe.

Referring to reports of talks in South Africa, Tsvangirai said in a statement that officials from his Movement for Democratic Change were merely presenting conditions under which negotiations could take place, including the end of violence against the opposition.

"Over the past 10 days, I and my party have stated categorically that there are no negotiations between ourselves and ZANU-PF currently taking place...This position has not changed," Tsvangirai said.