President Mugabe and Zimbabwe’s opposition leader said that there had been progress in power-sharing talks, with the Government indicating that an agreement could be reached today.

“These talks have been dragging on for some time now, but I must say that there is a positive development,” Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change, said. “Nothing has been concluded yet but we are hoping that tomorrow we will be able to look at the outstanding issues.”

“We are still going to talk. We are finishing tomorrow,” Mr Mugabe said. “There is progress — and lack of it — in some areas,” he added. Arthur Mutambara, head of a smaller faction of the pro-democracy party, also voiced optimism. “There a few issues left. We hope to bring finality and closure to the talks.”

But sources in the delegations cautioned that there still had been no substantive breakthrough since the talks resumed on Monday on the principal issue of how to distribute power between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai.

The negotiating teams spent most of yesterday in discussions, and were joined at sunset by the three leaders. The talks, mediated by Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, broke down three weeks ago when Mr Tsvangirai refused to accept proposals that would have kept Mr Mugabe as executive president, leaving Mr Tsvangirai as a prime minister with no authority over his cabinet and no control over the security services.

Observers were speculating that Mr Mbeki has changed his tack with Mr Mugabe, and has been trying to wring significant concessions from him for an agreement that represents equal power sharing.

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