HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will attend a summit in Harare next week aimed at saving an agreement to form a unity government with President Robert Mugabe, a spokesman said Friday.
"We are not boycotting Monday's meeting," opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
"It is our hope that this meeting will bring closure and finality to this issue of power-sharing and enable Zimbabwe to respond to the dire situation which the people are facing," he told AFP.
Tsvangirai had refused to go to Swaziland for a meeting with Mugabe and four other regional leaders on October 20, in protest that he was only given emergency travel documents at the last minute.
After Tsvangirai failed to show up, the regional leaders -- including South Africa's President Kgalema Motlanthe -- agreed to hold a new summit next Monday in Harare.
Earlier in the week, Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had indicated that he might boycott that meeting as well.
The two rivals on September 15 agreed on the outlines of a power-sharing accord that would keep 84-year-old Mugabe as president and make Tsvangirai the prime minister.
But negotiations over who is to control key ministries have stalled, with the MDC accusing Mugabe's party of insincerity in the talks.
Chamisa said the opposition hopes the summit will be able to break through the deadlock.
"Monday's platform gives us a special window of opportunity to state our compelling case for the equitable distribution of key ministries under the power sharing agreement," he said.
South Africa's Motlanthe had urged Tsvangirai not to boycott the summit, saying it was "imperative for all the stakeholders in Zimbabwe to avail themselves of the opportunity" offered by the meeting.
"When you seek a solution to a problem, you talk to those that you disagree with," he told South African public radio, describing the differences over the cabinet as "niggling problems."
Although Motlanthe came to power just one month ago, he brings significant heft to the summit as the leader of Africa's economic powerhouse, whose support Zimbabwe desperately needs to salvage what's left of its own crumbling economy.
Motlanthe is also chairman of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has been facilitating talks between Zimbabwe's political rivals.
The leaders of Mozambique and Swaziland, as well as a representative of Angola, are also expected to attend the summit.
Thabo Mbeki, Motlanthe's predecessor as president, remains SADC's chief mediator between the two sides.
Analysts said Tsvangirai could not afford to boycott another meeting, after he left regional leaders hanging in Swaziland.
"They know that any type of boycott would alienate the MDC from the region," said Eldred Masunungure, a University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer.
"They need to be seen be involved in finding a lasting solution to Zimbabwe, rather than to be seen as not willing."
The power-sharing talks are stalled over control of powerful ministries -- particularly home affairs, which oversees the police force that is accused of widespread human rights abuses.
The political squabbling has dimmed hopes for halting Zimbabwe's economic collapse, with the country buckling under the world's highest rate of inflation, officially at 231 million percent but believed to be much higher.
A leading Zimbabwean medical group said that more than 120 people had died of cholera so far this year, pointing to the dangerous collapse in the country's ability to provide clean water and sanitation.
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