Southern African countries are expected to hold a summit on the political crisis in Zimbabwe, a regional group said today, to try to keep the unity government from crumbling. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said a fortnight ago it was "disengaging" from government over a dispute with rival President Robert Mugabe on the implementation of the fragile coalition's power-sharing deal.

Yesterday, Mugabe upped the rhetoric against the MDC. Addressing a Zanu-PF conference, he accused the MDC of trying to establish a parallel government, saying some of its officials were paid salaries by hostile Western countries. The MDC has denied these charges before.

"Behind the scenes we still have our European sponsors, our American sponsors, paying our salaries, running a parallel government through hide and seek," he said.

"This is objectionable." The MDC has dismissed previous suggestions in state media that its officials in government were being paid hefty salaries by Western countries and international aid organisations, including the World Bank. They now say we are disengaging from Zanu-PF but Zanu-PF is not the government, it is in the government, it is not the cabinet," Mugabe said. "That hypocrisy should be seen for what it is."

Summit to be held soon
Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministers visiting Harare said the summit would be held soon to try to heal the rift which threatens to return Zimbabwe to its decade-long political and economic crisis.

"It will be soon, very soon, almost immediately," Oldemiro Baloi, Mozambican Foreign Minister and head of the SADC team told journalists, adding that both Mugabe and Tsvangirai wanted the unity government to work.

Baloi said although there were some serious problems in the government, Mugabe and Tsvangirai would meet next Monday as part of efforts to end the MDC's cabinet boycott. "We are listening to the issues and the views being raised by the two parties, and we are counselling all of them ... that it is important that they should remain engaged in the interest of the people of Zimbabwe," said a SADC official earlier.

The SADC mission met representatives of Tsvangirai's main MDC, Mugabe's ZANU-PF and those from a small MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, also part of the unity government. Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila, who is the SADC chairman, said on Friday he would meet Mugabe and Tsvangirai in Harare on his way home from South Africa but said the Zimbabwe crisis was manageable.

The MDC accuses Zanu-PF -- which it calls an "arrogant and unreliable partner" -- of persecuting its officials and delaying reforms that will be key to elections due in about two years.-Reuters