Zimbabwean political leaders have agreed to form a new Cabinet of 31 members after the signing of a power-sharing deal on Monday, according to agencies on Sunday.
Zimbabwean ruling party and the opposition have begun discussing the appointment of ministerial posts in a new Cabinet which will comprise 31 members, 16 of them drawn from the opposition, the state radio reported.
President Robert Mugabe, main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the head of a smaller splinter faction, Arthur Mutambara, met in Harare on Saturday to work on Cabinet appointments before a meeting of Mugabe's politburo, his party's top policy body, agencies reported.
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party led by Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) headed by Tsvangirai reached a power-sharing deal Thursday.
The substantial development in the on-again, off-again talks came after Mugabe issued an ultimatum last week that he would go ahead unilaterally with naming cabinet ministers if Tsvangirai did not sign the power-sharing agreement by last Thursday.
Zimbabwe held presidential and parliamentary elections on March29, in which presidential candidate Tsvangirai received a leading number of votes but failed to win outright.
The ZANU-PF lost its Lower House majority for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980, but MDC won the majority by only a narrow margin.
Negotiations began in July to resolve the impasse resulting from Mugabe's unopposed re-election in June. The vote was boycotted by Tsvangirai, who accused the Mugabe's ruling party of backing the violence against the MDC supporters.
Tsvangirai demands the lion's share of power in the unity government, insisting on respecting the results of the first roundof polls, trying to place Mugabe in a largely ceremonial position of head of state, which Mugabe refused to accept, according to reports.
The negotiations were very close to a breakthrough on the eve of the Southern African Community Development summit held in mid-August, but later stalled as Tsvangirai requested to "reflect and consult" on a sticking point in the dialogue.
Though it is yet to know how the power will be allocated in thefuture unity government, analysts believe that the agreement marksan end to the country's political deadlock, which weighed down further the deteriorating economy.
Since 2000, when the country began to undertake a massive land reform program, which was followed by sanctions imposed by the West, the economy has kept declining.
The country, once hailed as Africa's breadbasket, with well cultivated agriculture, the backbone of its economy, is having theworld's highest inflation -- 11.2 million percent in June, according to official figures.
It also suffers serious shortage of foreign currency and basic goods like sugar and cooking oil.
Source: Xinhua
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