South African President Thabo Mbeki said here on Sunday that the talks between the Zimbabwe ruling and the opposition will continue.

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki attends the opening of the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Johannesburg, August 16, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Speaking at a press conference after the conclusion of the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mbeki said it is difficult to say when the negotiation process will complete.

The South African president, also the SADC mediator for the Zimbabwean talks, was responding to media's question on when the two parties will sign a deal.

Mbeki said any deal from outside will not last long and SADC will not impose any deal on the parties.

The president said it is important to create political conditions for the talks to continue.

On the details of the talks, Mbeki said there has been agreement between the two parties that they will not leak any details to the media so as to facilitate the negotiations.

The Zimbabwe inter-party talks resumed this weekend on the sidelines of the two-day SADC meeting which concluded in Johannesburg on Sunday.

The remarks by the South African president dashed the hope that a deal between the two parties is imminent.

The talks between the two parties formally started few days after the two parties signed a deal on the framework for formal talks late in July.

The talks broke down early this month as the negotiators were deadlocked over who will lead a possible unity government.

The opposition MDC insisted that its leader Morgan Tsvangirai be the leader of any unity government because he won a leading number of votes in Zimbabwe's first round of presidential voting in March, though failing to obtain an absolute majority.

However, the ruling ZANU-PF is firm in rejecting any deal that fails to recognize its leader Robert Mugabe's victory in the run-off, which was boycotted by Tsvangirai, who cited various reasons.

Mugabe won a landslide victory in the presidential run-off election on June 27. The Zimbabwe election committee said official results showed that Mugabe, 84, won 85.5 percent of the votes in the election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's 9.3 percent, defeating Tsvangirai by a huge margin.

Tsvangirai got 47.9 percent of the votes in the first round of election held on March 29, followed by President Robert Mugabe's 43.2 percent.

An outright winner needs to obtain an absolute majority of the votes, otherwise a run-off needs to be held, according to Zimbabwe's law.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe listens at the opening of the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Johannesburg, August 16, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe listens at the opening of the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Johannesburg, August 16, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)