Tsvangirai aborts Chinese trip

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was on Tuesday forced to cut short his week-long visit to China so that he could attend the extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) in Angola that starts on Friday.

Tsvangirai has been invited to a meeting of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security that will discuss regional hotspots, including Zimbabwe, on the sidelines of the heads of state and government meeting.

The Sadc leaders in the main meeting would be discussing the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, which seeks to enhance economic co-operation between member states.

The three parties in Zimbabwe's troubled inclusive government - Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC - have been invited to the troika meeting.

In the past fortnight, President Robert Mugabe has been on a diplomatic offensive, sending envoys to meet regional leaders to sell his plan for an early election.

The invitation to the other parties in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) is expected to upset Mugabe's plans as Zanu-PF officials believed the PM had not been invited to the extraordinary summit.

Tsvangirai's spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka yesterday said the MDC-T leader had been expected to fly straight to Luanda, Angola, last night for the meeting, cutting his first visit to Beijing by two days.

He was expected back in Harare on Friday, according to his itinerary in China.

State media had claimed Tsvangirai was frantically trying to gatecrash into a meeting meant for heads of state.