South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe had agreed to enter formal talks with the opposition on ending the country's long-running crisis.
"I'm happy to say that they have agreed now that they will go into formal negotiations," Mbeki told a joint news conference with visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
"I'm saying that I'm quite certain that they will negotiate and reach an agreement," Mbeki said.
But senior officials in both Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said they were unaware of any new breakthroughs.
Mugabe's government has been under increasing international scrutiny following his controversial re-election in 2002, which both the MDC and international observers said was rigged.
Critics charge Mugabe with political repression and disastrous economic mismanagement that has left the country with soaring inflation, high unemployment, and critical shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange.
Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe to independence from Britain in 1980, says his government is being sabotaged by opponents of his policy of seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.
Mbeki said he won the agreement between Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF and the MDC during a visit to Harare in December, adding that formal talks would have been in full swing now but for the distraction of the Christmas and New Year break.
"We've agreed with them that they actually don't need any mediation, but we'll keep a watching brief," he said.
Mbeki did not say whether there were any conditions attached to the proposed talks - an issue which has scuppered earlier efforts to get the two sides together.
Mugabe in the past has said he was willing to negotiate with the MDC, but only if it dropped its legal challenge to his 2002 election. The MDC has refused to drop its court challenge.
The two parties have nevertheless been in informal talks for the past year, although there have been few public signs of progress in their stand-off.
Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who has been leading government's informal talks with the MDC, said on Thursday he was on holiday and unaware of any new developments.
"I am on leave and I am not aware of any new developments in this regard. Our (ZANU-PF) secretary for information and publicity, comrade (Nathan) Shamuyarira would know the latest developments," he told Reuters.
Shamuyarira and Mugabe's press secretaries were not immediately available for comment.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is meanwhile on trial for treason following government charges that he plotted to assassinate Mugabe and stage a coup. He has denied the charges.
During a break in his trial, Tsvangirai said he could not immediately confirm Mbeki's announcement of formal talks. "I'm not aware of that. I've been in court all day," he told Reuters.
Mbeki on Thursday defended himself against critics who accuse him of pursuing a soft policy towards Mugabe, and of not speaking up strongly against abuses in Zimbabwe.
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