Tsvangirai may pull out of deal

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of a power-sharing deal with Robert Mugabe after the President announced that his ruling Zanu-PF party would control key cabinet posts, including the military and police.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected in Harare today, to try and rescue the agreement that he brokered last month. Under the existing deal, Mugabe remains president but with far fewer powers while Tsvangirai would be appointed prime minister.

Tsvangirai told a rally in Harare yesterday that it was "not negotiable" that his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) hand over home affairs, which controls police, to Mugabe.

"If they [Zanu-PF] do it that way, we have no right to be part of such an arrangement. The people have suffered. But if it means suffering the more in order for them to get what is at stake, then so be it."

He added: "An idiot wouldn't accept that... That's not power sharing, it’s power grabbing."