Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition factions are continuing with negotiations to resolve the country's political crisis, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday.
-- New US sanctions to stifle Zimbabwe reforms: spokesman
"Those negotiations among the Zimbabweans are continuing," Mbeki said in a briefing in Pretoria. The South African leader is overseeing the talks between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Mugabe's officials and the opposition began formal negotiations last week in South Africa in an effort to pave the way for a power-sharing deal that will break the impasse over Mugabe's disputed June 27 re-election.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the poll, blaming violence that he said had killed 120 of his supporters. Western nations also condemned the poll as violent and not free.
Mbeki and other African leaders have pressed Mugabe and Tsvangirai to negotiate a national unity government, which is seen by the continent as the only way to avert further violence and reverse an economic slide in Zimbabwe.
But there is sharp disagreement between ZANU-PF and the MDC over who should lead such a government and how long it should stay in power.-Reuters
Meanwhile, the latest US sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's regime are designed to stifle economic recovery in Zimbabwe, his chief spokesman was quoted Sunday as saying.
Secretary for Information George Charamba told the state-run Sunday Mail that the sanctions aimed at impeding Zimbabwean companies from finding partners in China, Iran and other eastern countries.
The US government last week expanded its sanctions regime by adding to it the names of several dozen individuals as well as 17 companies and parastatals linked to the Mugabe regime.
Since the imposition of targeted sanctions after disputed 2002 elections, some Western firms have shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe-prompting Harare to adopted a "Look East" policy for trade and investment deals.
Zimbabwe, currently gripped by a post-election crisis, has been ravaged by a record hyperinflation which shot up from 165,000 percent in February to 2.2 million percent in June.
"The companies slapped with sanctions are those companies that are trying to validate the 'Look East' policy by entering into partnership with non-traditional investors," Charamba said.
"Western interests are now threatened by these non-traditional investors from China, Iran and other Asian countries," he added. The US Treasury Department said the sanctions would be imposed on 17 companies or entities as well as on an Omani national.
It said Mugabe, 84, his senior officials and regime's cronies "have used these entities to illegally siphon revenue and foreign exchange from the Zimbabwean people".
Among the targeted entities are Operation Sovereign Legitimacy, described as the commercial arm of the Zimbabwean armed forces, and the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, a marketing and export agent for all minerals except gold and silver mined in the country. Others are the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, the country's largest steel works, as well as a number of banks and holding companies.