President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo arrived in Harare early on Monday for crucial talks with President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, state radio reported.
It said they were met by Mugabe at Harare international airport.
The pair would hold separate discussions with the 79-year-old Zimbabwean leader and Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, later.
The bulletin made no mention of Malawi’s president Bakili Muluzi, who is also expected to be in the discussions, as a representative of the Southern African Development Community, the 13-nation regional economic bloc.
Mbeki has said that the visit is to try to bring Mugabe and Tsvangirai together in dialogue to try and resolve the country’s volatile crisis, as the once robust economy collapses and law and order disintegrates under state-driven lawlessness.
However, the initiative is widely seen as a bid to restore the country’s legitimacy and international acceptability, and that Mbeki, Obasanjo and Muluzi will be pressing Mugabe to step down and to allow new elections.
Mugabe’s victory in presidential elections in March last year were condemned by most Western governments and the Commonwealth as the result of violent intimidation and rigging.
Tsvangirai says he is ready to talk to Mugabe, on condition that the rule of law is restored, while Mugabe’s administration has been taking an increasingly hard line in the last week, and appears to be insisting it will not talk to Tsvangirai.
On Sunday the state press, the mouthpiece for Mugabe’s regime, declared that Mbeki and Obasanjo were not to be trusted as they might be coming to Harare as ”British agents … to play British games.” – Sapa-DPA