South African President Thabo Mbeki met Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday to try to help end a political crisis.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had declined to meet Mbeki, who has tried to mediate between the two sides after Mugabe's disputed re-election on June 27.
Mbeki told reporters after a brief meeting with Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, who leads a breakaway faction of the MDC, that negotiations had to move with speed.
"It is the view of the facilitators and the Zimbabwean leadership that we need to move with speed," Mbeki said. We agreed that MDC Tsvangirai has to be part of the negotiations, so we are hoping that the process will take place with them."
A spokesman for Tsvangirai's MDC, Nelson Chamisa, said the party was "mandated to negotiate under the resolutions of the Africa Union and the Southern Africa Development Community . on the basis that there is accountability (and) transparency".
"If we were meeting Mugabe as head of ZANU-PF no problem but not as head of state because we would have endorsed him but you know that his position is in dispute."
VOTE RIGGING
Mbeki's trip follows a June 27 runoff presidential election, in which Mugabe was the only candidate after Tsvangirai pulled out citing state sponsored violence.
Tsvangirai and his MDC have criticised Mbeki's mediation efforts, accusing him of siding with Mugabe and have asked the African Union (AU) to sent an envoy to help with the talks. Mugabe says he supports Mbeki's role in the mediation.
"We will of course engage the AU and I am quite certain that they will make their own contribution to move the process forward," said Mbeki.
Mugabe said on Friday the MDC must drop its claim to power and accept that he was the rightful head of state.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who leads the ZANU-PF negotiating team, criticised Tsvangirai for failing to attend Saturday's meeting, accusing him of behaving like a rebel.
"I think that what is becoming clear is that if the country is not careful it will be precipitated into a period of instability," Chinamasa told state television.
A film secretly taken by a Zimbabwe prison guard and smuggled out of the country shows rigging that took place for the June 27 presidential run-off vote, the Guardian newspaper in Britain said on Saturday.
The film taken by Shepherd Yuda using a camera supplied by the newspaper showed prison staff being told by a war veteran how to fill in their ballot papers for Robert Mugabe.
