* SADC to hold extraordinary Zimbabwe summit * SADC ready to help resolve differences * SADC chairman Kabila to meet Mugabe, Tsvangirai (Recasts with SADC) By Cris Chinaka HARARE, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Southern African countries are expected to hold an extraordinary summit on the political crisis in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Friday, in a bid to keep the unity government from crumbling. Ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would recommend holding a special summit to discuss difficulties facing his strained unity government with President Robert Mugabe. A SADC delegation on a two-day visit to Harare has been pressing Tsvangirai's MDC to end a cabinet boycott in an effort to resolve rifts threatening Zimbabwe's power-sharing government, a regional official said. "I have been advised that given the input from various representations, the mission will recommend the convening of an extraordinary summit of SADC to deal with the matter," Tsvangirai said, adding that no date had been fixed yet. Tsvangirai joined arch-rival Mugabe nine months ago in a coalition to try to end a decade-long political and economic crisis, but his MDC announced a fortnight ago that it was "disengaging" from the government over a dispute with Mugabe on the implementation of the power-sharing agreement. "We are listening to the issues and the views being raised by the two parties, and we are counselling all of them ... that it is important that they should remain engaged in the interest of the people of Zimbabwe," said a SADC official earlier.The Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) decision to boycott cabinet meetings and interaction with Mugabe's ZANU-PF party illustrated the difficulties of the power-sharing deal and has further delayed efforts to rebuild Zimbabwe's shattered economy. The SADC official, who declined to be named, said Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change should fight its cause from within the government. "SADC is ready to help the Zimbabwe parties to reach an understanding on those matters where they have differences," he added, but declined to discuss specifics. A three-man SADC ministerial mission, accompanied by several senior officials, met representatives of Tsvangirai's main Movement for Democratic Change, Mugabe's ZANU-PF and those from a small MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, also part of the unity government. SADC chairman and Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila said on Friday he would meet Mugabe and Tsvangirai in Harare on his way home from South Africa, but said the Zimbabwe crisis was manageable. "(I) don't believe the problem in Zimbabwe is out of hand. I believe (the) GPA (Global Political Agreement) is the only solution for Zimbabwe to move forward," he told reporters. Besides refusing to swear-in some of its members into government, the MDC accuses ZANU-PF -- which it calls an "arrogant and unreliable partner" of persecuting its officials and delaying media and constitutional reforms that will be key to holding free and fair elections in about two years. Mugabe says he has met obligations under the power-sharing deal and maintains the MDC needs to campaign for the lifting of Western sanctions against his ZANU-PF, including travel restrictions and a freeze on general financial aid to Zimbabwe. ZANU-PF also says the MDC must end a propaganda campaign by its supporters abroad, and should ask its Western backers to shut down what it calls "pirate radio stations" broadcasting into Zimbabwe from Britain and the United States. "We are owed more than we are in debt because the issues the MDC are raising are not in the global political agreement that we signed, and some of them are meant for propaganda purposes," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told Zimbabwe state radio. (Reporting by Cris Chinaka; Editing by Giles Elgood)
REUTERS PICTURES OF THE DECADE. Zimbabwean commercial farmer Tommy Bayley rides an old bicycle ahead of war veterans and villagers who invaded his farm Danbury Park, 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) northwest ...
