By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe saidon Wednesday crisis talks with the opposition were going welland he wanted negotiations aimed at solving the politicalimpasse to succeed.
In a sign of the economic collapse that has been worsenedby the political turmoil, the central bank said it wouldredenominate the worthless currency to cut 10 zeroes from theZimbabwe dollar, but analysts said that would do nothing tohelp the economy.
Mugabe's party began power-sharing talks with theopposition in South Africa last week, but doubts have surfacedover progress after they were adjourned.
"We're still negotiating, we want to succeed. Negotiationsare negotiations, they are not a card game... You find room forcompromise, sometimes compromise is difficult and you stand byyour proposals as presented," Mugabe said in his first publiccomments on the talks since a framework for discussion wassigned on July 21.
"You debate again and again and reach a compromise. Iunderstand the talks are going well," Mugabe said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Harare tomeet Mugabe as part of his mediation in the crisis talks.
Mbeki denied on Tuesday that talks had reached a deadlock,saying they were going well and negotiators had adjourned toreport back to their respective party leaders.
South Africa's department of foreign affairs said in astatement that Mbeki had met opposition Movement for DemocraticChange leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his negotiating team inPretoria on Tuesday.
PRESSURE
A two-week deadline for completing the talks runs out onAugust 4, but it could be extended.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai are under pressure from within Africaand the rest of the world to negotiate a national unitygovernment to end a crisis that has ruined Zimbabwe's economyand flooded neighbouring states with millions of refugees.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday thecurrency would be redenominated by removing 10 zeros fromAugust 1 in the government's latest bid to prop up the failingeconomy.
A loaf of bread currently costs around 250 billion Zimbabwedollars -- $4 using the official bank rate and between $0.04and $2 on the thriving black market. The highest denominationbill is 100 billion dollars.
Zimbabwe last redenominated its currency in 2006, removingthree zeros, but this was followed by sharp price increases.
John Robertson, an economic consultant in Harare, said thelatest redenomination would not address the root causes of thecrisis in a once-prosperous country suffering food shortagesand inflation at over 2 million percent a year.
"This is just to overcome the absurd difficulty of havingto deal with all those zeros," Robertson said.
It is unclear what compromise could be reached at thepower-sharing talks.
The MDC says only Tsvangirai can lead a new governmentbecause he won a first round presidential vote in March andonly pulled out of a June run-off vote because of violence hesays killed 122 of his supporters.
ZANU-PF has said it will not accept any deal that fails torecognise Mugabe's re-election.
The parties also disagree over how long a national unitygovernment should remain in power. The MDC wants new electionsheld as soon as possible while Mugabe, who has ruled since1980, wants to carry on with his new five-year mandate.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Banya; Writing by MariusBosch; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
