By Serena Chaudhry
PRETORIA (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki onTuesday denied that talks between Zimbabwean President RobertMugabe's ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition MDC had hit deadlockand said they were "doing very well".
A Movement for Democratic Change opposition official saidon Monday that talks in Pretoria were deadlocked because theMDC could not accept an offer for its leader, MorganTsvangirai, to be vice president of a unity government.
"The negotiators are negotiating. As you know they havebeen meeting here now for a number of days and they arecontinuing to do that. They (talks) are doing very well," Mbekitold reporters in Pretoria.
Tsvangirai won a first round presidential vote on March 29but pulled out of the June 27 second round citing systematicviolence which the MDC says has killed 120 of its supporters.
The MDC says only Tsvangirai can lead a new government.
Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai are under heavy internationalpressure, including from within Africa, to negotiate a nationalunity government to end a crisis that has ruined the economyand flooded neighbouring states with millions of refugees.
Mbeki, who is mediating the talks, said they would soonadjourn for a couple of days to allow negotiators to returnhome to consult with their leaders.
"They are continuing to talk. They haven't concluded andthey will be adjourning shortly for a couple of days becausethey want to go to Harare and consult with their principals.And then they will come back by the end of the week," Mbekisaid.
Senior negotiators from ZANU-PF and the MDC started fulltalks last Thursday.
FRAMEWORK DEAL
The negotiations followed a deal on the framework fordiscussions signed on July 21.
The MDC official said Tsvangirai would meet his negotiatorson Tuesday, before proceeding to a meeting of the SouthernAfrica Development Community (SADC)'s committee on politics,defence and security in Angola on Wednesday.
Deeply concerned by the violence and the economic crisis,SADC and the African Union (AU) are pushing for a power-sharingdeal in Zimbabwe.
The southern African grouping appointed Mbeki as Zimbabwemediator last year.
ZANU-PF has said it will not accept any deal that fails torecognise Mugabe's re-election or seeks to reverse his landredistribution programme, under which the government has seizedthousands of white-owned farms since 2000.
The parties also disagree over how long a national unitygovernment should remain in power. Tsvangirai's MDC wants freshelections held as soon as possible, while Mugabe, who has ruledsince 1980, wants to carry on with his new five-year mandate.
(Writing By Marius Bosch; Editing by Barry Moody)
