Zimbabwe Kumekucha - Zimbabwe parties reach power-sharing deal

President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to share power on Thursday in a deal to end Zimbabwe's political crisis, both sides said.

The agreement follows two months of negotiations between Mugabe, 84, who has ruled with an iron hand since independence from Britain in 1980, and former union leader Tsvangirai, 56, his fiercest opponent for the past decade.

But it was not clear how many concessions Mugabe made to Tsvangirai, an issue that will likely determine how much financial support Mugabe's Western foes will give Zimbabwe to help it recover from economic meltdown.

The deal was a coup for South African President Thabo Mbeki, who defied pressure to take a tough line with Mugabe, pursuing soft diplomacy as the regional mediator in the talks.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's MDC would announce a national unity government on Monday, said Mbeki.

"I am absolutely certain that the leadership of Zimbabwe is committed to implementing these agreements, In the end, out of all of that process, has come an agreement that is a unanimous agreement, arrived at without any reservation by all the negotiating parties," said Mbeki.