Delayed Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Talks Seen Beginning Thursday
Mediator and South African President Thabo Mbeki had hoped to see the talks begin on Tuesday, but ZANU-PF negotiators said they had to 
Zimbabwean power-sharing talks between the ruling ZANU-PF and the twoformations of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change were expected tobegin on Thursday in Pretoria, later than expected due to last-minute rulingparty internal consultations, sources said. South African President Thabo Mbeki, mediator for the Southern African Development Community, had pushed for talks to getgoing on Tuesday immediately following the signing Monday of a memorandum ofunderstanding setting the framework for the talks. But sources said ZANU-PF mediators Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche,respectively the ministers of justice and labor under President Robert Mugabe, said they needed to consultwith the ruling party leadership following which they headed for Pretoria on Wednesday. Chinamasaconfirmed to state media that the talks will resume Thursday. Negotiatorsfor the MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai used the the time to reconfigure their team. Secretary General Tendai Biti and Deputy Treasurer Elton Mangoma will represent the Tsvangirai formation at the table. But MDC Women's Assembly Chairwoman Theresa Makone and Chairman Lovemore Moyo willbe on hand as observers. Political analysts meanwhile warned that the deal-breaker inthe talks will be the issue of who heads the government of national unityor transitional authority under consideration. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, speaking in London Wednesday, said Tsvangirai and Mr. Mugabe must be flexible about the question of leadership, but headded that the talks must give Mugabe a safe exit from power for the sake ofthe people. Odinga arrived in the Kenyan prime minister's post through a similar process of negotiation on the exercise of power following a contested election and widespread violence