Tsvangirai says Zimbabwe talks deadline flexible

By David Lewis

DAKAR (Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday he was "fairly satisfied" with talks with President Robert Mugabe's party to end a political crisis, and said a Monday, August 4 deadline was "not inflexible".

Tsvangirai said talks would resume as planned on Sunday with Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. Power-sharing negotiations began last week under international pressure after Mugabe's unopposed re-election in a poll dismissed around the world as a sham.

"I am fairly satisfied, but there are, like in any negotiations, sticking points that need to be unraveled," Tsvangirai told reporters in Dakar after meeting Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.

The talks adjourned on Tuesday, leaving little time to complete them by the August 4 deadline set out in the framework for negotiations signed on July 21.

"Two weeks may appear too short, but it is not inflexible and I am sure that the facilitation will adjust as progress moves forward," Tsvangirai said.

Later, at a news conference, Tsvangirai said the suspension of negotiations had "nothing to do with what has been offered".

"We are not in these negotiations to have an elite pact by allocating this post or that position," he said.

South African President Thabo Mbeki is mediating between the rival camps, whose political struggle has exacerbated economic crisis that has brought hyperinflation and food shortages and forced millions of refugees over Zimbabwe's borders.

"The country is on its knees. Our people have no food, they have nothing and therefore in the spirit of trying to resolve the plight of our people, we have put faith in the only solution where we don't have guns to fight," Tsvangirai said.

Tsvangirai won a first round of voting in March but official results said he fell short of an outright majority. He abandoned a run-off vote against Mugabe in June because of attacks on his supporters. He says more than 120 have been killed.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980 and wants to carry on with his new five-year mandate, said on Wednesday that the talks were going well and he wanted them to succeed.

"TSVANGIRAI MUST BE LEADER"

Analysts say both sides are deeply entrenched and finding middle ground will be difficult.

Tsvangirai's deputy Thokozani Khupe said Tsvangirai's leadership of a transitional government was "non-negotiable".

"That is our position and we are not moving from that position," Khupe told Reuters after a meeting organized by civic groups and South Africa's COSATU labor federation on Thursday.