No progress at regional Zimbabwe summit - MDC

Traders sell groceries near a poster of Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe at an open-air market in Mabvuku neighbourhood in the capital Harare, January 26, 2009.

PRETORIA (Reuters) - A regional summit aimed at pushing Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the opposition to implement a power-sharing deal has made no progress, an opposition official said on Monday.

"We are worlds apart. If we were (inches) apart, we are now miles apart," an official of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told Reuters after the first day of the 15-member SADC bloc's summit.

Signature of the deal in September was seen as a chance to prevent an economic collapse that would add to the strain on neighbours already hosting millions of Zimbabweans who fled in search of work and, more recently, to escape a cholera epidemic.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai remain unable to agree on control of cabinet posts, and neither side shows any sign of compromise.

Tsvangirai, saying ZANU-PF is trying to sideline him, wants control of powerful ministries such as Home Affairs. He says no deal is possible unless MDC activists are released from jail.

Western leaders want Mugabe to step down and a democratic government to embrace economic reforms before billions of dollars in aid is offered, but Mugabe has refused.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is "very concerned" by Mugabe's refusal to reach a deal and wants South Africa, which has the most regional economic and diplomatic clout, to put more pressure on him, the State Department said on Monday.

"We're very troubled by the fact that the Mugabe regime refuses to negotiate seriously with the opposition," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.

"Senator Clinton is very focused on this issue. She is very concerned about it," he added.

PRICES DOUBLE DAILY

Regional leaders are holding their fifth summit aimed at breaking the deadlock, while prices in Zimbabwe double every day and cholera has killed nearly 2,900 people since August.

"Questions concerning Zimbabwe are continuously being raised in capitals and streets of Africa, with the expectation that the Zimbabwean leadership of all persuasions, under the aegis of SADC, will resolutely resolve the impasse with decisiveness and statesmanship," South African President Kgalema Motlanthe told the summit. "I trust that we will not fail them."

Mugabe, in power since 1980, and his ZANU-PF party have urged the opposition to join a unity government but say they will not hesitate to form one without them.

In Brussels, the European Union stepped up pressure on him on Monday by adding 27 individuals and 36 firms to a sanctions list, EU officials said.

A Zimbabwean deputy minister billed Monday's summit as the last chance to rescue the power-sharing pact.

"... soon after this summit, whether there is an agreement or there is no agreement, President Mugabe is going to form a cabinet," deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told South African public broadcaster SAFM radio.

Within the SADC, Zambia and Botswana have taken a tough line on Mugabe, but other members favour a more diplomatic approach with the man they still revere as a liberation hero.

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com)