By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader MorganTsvangirai on Wednesday spurned a call from African leaders fortalks with President Robert Mugabe on forming a unitygovernment, saying conditions were not yet right.
Tsvangirai, who boycotted a widely criticised June 27election run-off, said Mugabe must first stop attacks onopposition supporters and demanded that negotiations take placeon the basis of a March 29 first round vote, which he won.
"Significantly the conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe arenot conducive to negotiations. If dialogue is to be initiated,it is essential that ZANU-PF stops the violence, halts thepersecution of MDC leaders and supporters," he told a newsconference in Harare.
Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),which defeated Mugabe's ZANU-PF in parliamentary election,should be recognised as Zimbabwe's legitimate government.
Mugabe's officials earlier welcomed the call from AfricanUnion (AU) leaders at a summit on Tuesday to join talks withthe opposition on a joint administration to end the crisis inZimbabwe, whose economy is ruined.
"The AU resolution is in conformity to what PresidentMugabe said at his inauguration, when he said we are preparedto talk in order to resolve our problems," Information MinisterSikhanyiso Ndlovu told Reuters.
"We are committed to talk, not just with Tsvangirai but toother parties as well."
Tsvangirai said talks would be meaningless unless theAfrican Union sent a permanent envoy to expand mediationefforts by South African President Thabo Mbeki, criticised forbeing too soft in his diplomacy with Mugabe.
Despite the AU support for a power-sharing deal modelled onthe one that ended post-election violence in Kenya earlier thisyear, disagreement over who should lead the government couldprove an insurmountable obstacle.
Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a new five-year term on Sundayafter election authorities announced he had won about 85percent of the vote in a run-off, which was condemned bymonitors and much of world opinion as violent and unfair.
Mugabe has branded the MDC a puppet of former colonialpower Britain and the United States and vowed to never let itrule Zimbabwe. Western countries are discussing whether totoughen sanctions on Zimbabwe's leaders.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country hastake over the European Union presidency, said on Tuesday the EUwould only accept a government led by Tsvangirai. The EuropeanCommission repeated that line on Wednesday.
"Any transitional government must include Morgan Tsvangiraias prime minister or head of government," Commissiondevelopment spokesman John Clancy told a briefing in Brussels.
Zimbabwe's once prosperous economy is racked by the world'shighest rate of hyper-inflation, food and fuel shortages and 80percent unemployment.
(For further stories on Zimbabwe please click)
(Additional reporting by Nelson Banya in Harare, Mark Johnin Brussels; Writing by Paul Simao and Barry Moody; Editing byMatthew Tostevin)