South African President, Thabo Mbeki, said today Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, had agreed to enter formal talks with the opposition on ending the country's long-running crisis.
"I'm happy to say that they have agreed now that they will go into formal negotiations," Mr Mbeki told a joint news conference with visiting German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.
Mugabe in the past has said he was willing to negotiate with the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but only if the party dropped its legal challenge to his controversial re-election in 2002 - which the MDC and international observers have said was marked by electoral fraud.
The MDC has so far refused to drop its court challenge, but the two parties have been in informal talks for the past year as Zimbabwe struggles with record inflation and unemployment and political violence blamed by Mugabe's critics largely on mismanagement under his nearly 23-year rule.
The MDC's leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai is meanwhile on trial for treason following government charges that he plotted to assassinate Mr Mugabe and stage a coup. He has denied the charges.
Mr Mbeki has come under severe criticism at home and abroad for what many see as his soft attitude towards Mugabe, who has seen international sanctions imposed on his country after allegations that he rigged the 2002 election.