FACTBOX: Facts about Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday signed a deal with President Robert Mugabe laying down the framework for talks on forming a power sharing government to try to end a deep political crisis.

It was the first meeting in 10 years between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Here are some facts about Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

* Tsvangirai was a union leader who has been a thorn in President Robert Mugabe's side for a decade as the head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition group.

* The son of a bricklayer, Tsvangirai was born in 1952 in central Zimbabwe.

* He worked in a mine to feed his family and cut his political teeth in the labor movement as a mine foreman.

* Tsvangirai helped found the MDC in 1999. Despite intimidation, it stunned the ruling party by winning 57 of 120 seats in a 2000 parliamentary vote.

* Tsvangirai was acquitted of plotting to assassinate Mugabe and seize power before a 2002 presidential election.

* Mugabe's party won a crushing majority in a 2005 parliamentary election, which the MDC said was rigged.

* The MDC split in 2005 in a feud over how to tackle Mugabe. A splinter group accused Tsvangirai of behaving in a dictatorial fashion.

* Tsvangirai was arrested at an anti-Mugabe rally in 2007. He said he had been attacked at a police station. Critics said the incident helped revive his sagging political fortunes.

* The widely condemned June 27, 2008 run-off presidential vote followed a disputed election in March in which official results showed Tsvangirai beating Mugabe, but not by enough to avoid a run-off.

* Tsvangirai boycotted the run-off poll, which Mugabe won by over 85 percent of the vote, because of violence against his supporters. The MDC said around 120 of its supporters were killed by militias loyal to Mugabe.