On Monday Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai met and held talks about a power-sharing agreement but failed to reach consensus.

After more than 12 hours of talk mediated by South African President Kgalema Motlanthe produced no agreement, the deadlock was referred to a special summit of the Southern African Development Community to be held next week, Tomaz Salamao, executive secretary of the regional bloc, told reporters.

Salamao said the meeting would be attended by leaders of the group's nations next Monday either in South Africa or Botswana.

The latest round of talks broke up around midnight and a disappointed Tsvangirai was one of the first to leave the Rainbow Towers hotel in downtown Harare.

We came to this meeting so that we would be able to resolve the outstanding issues and conclude the power-sharing agreement. Unfortunately, there has been no progress made, he said.

South Africa Botswana Zimbabwe