Namibian President refuse to meet Tsvangirai

MDC-T leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has suffered a setback in his bid to lobby SADC leaders to lean on his Zanu-PF rival, President Robert Mugabe, to force him to agree a string of reforms ahead of elections.

Reports from Namibia say President Hifikepunye Pohamba - a regional ally of Mugabe - refused to meet Tsvangirai.

The MDC-T leader should have arrived in Namibia on Wednesday after stops in South Africa where he met President Jacob Zuma, Tanzania where he met with President Jakaya Kikwete and Angola which put forward its foreign minister.

But Namibia's Confidente newspaper reported on Thursday that Pohamba and Prime Minister Hage Geingob "showed no interest in meeting with Tsvangirai" who is believed to have stayed away.

A source told the newspaper: "It appears that Pohamba and Geingob are not so keen to engage with Tsvangirai on this matter because of their relationship with Mugabe and his party so they will not meet with him."

Facing attacks at home from Zanu-PF and the Welshman Ncube-led MDC, Tsvangirai is crisscrossing the region trying to convince SADC leaders to convene an extraordinary summit to discuss Zimbabwe and possibly force the parties to agree some election rules.

South Africa's Zuma, who took over the mediation on behalf of SADC from his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, told Tsvangirai during their meeting that he would be travelling to Zimbabwe soon for talks with the main parties.

Tsvangirai is expected back in Harare on Sunday.