Ban hails pact signing in Zim

2008-07-22 09:36

New York - United Nations boss Ban Ki-moon on Monday hailed the joint pledge by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to launch full-fledged talks to end their election dispute.

"The secretary-general welcomes the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the parties in Zimbabwe, which provides a framework for formal talks to end the political crisis in the country," Ban's press office said in a statement.

The UN chief also praised President Thabo Mbeki and his mediation team for their efforts "in facilitating the signing of this agreement".

Ban renewed the UN's commitment to support these mediation efforts and urged all sides "to engage, in good faith, in serious talks that would lead to a lasting solution to the political crisis and address the urgent economic and humanitarian needs of the Zimbabwean people".

At a ceremony in Harare, overseen by Mbeki earlier on Monday, Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a joint agreement on a framework for fully-fledged talks to end their country's months-long political crisis and shook hands in their first meeting in a decade.

However, Tsvangirai, who pushed Mugabe into second place in the first round of voting in March, pointedly refused to refer to the veteran leader as anything more than president of the ruling party.

Mugabe won the one-man run-off election on June 27, which was boycotted by Tsvangirai and was widely seen as a sham.

- AFP