Zimbabwe power-sharing talks resume in Harare

Harare, Oct 27 (Xinhua) Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Monday resumed their talks on a power-sharing deal that was stalled following disagreements.

Both sides signed a deal in September to start talks for forming a unity government, but was stalled following disagreements over allocation of ministerial portfolios between the parties.

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) also participated in Monday's discussions. SADC has entrusted former South African president Thabo Mbeki to mediate in the talks.

Tsvangirai last week boycotted a regional summit to discuss the Zimbabwe issue in Swaziland.

'We are optimistic that the meeting will bring positive results and end the disagreement so that the country can move forward,' ZANU-PF party's chief negotiator, Patrick Chinamasa, said.

Chinamasa said that his party hoped that there would be an agreement by Monday so that people could begin focusing on other pressing issues of the country.