Cosatu is not about to quit the tripartite alliance, despite its bitter public row with the ANC, say the trade union congress's leaders.

This follows an emergency meeting of Cosatu and its 21 affiliates in Johannesburg yesterday over the latest fallout with the ANC over foreign and economic policy.

Both sides adopted a conciliatory stance yesterday and an urgent meeting of the tripartite alliance is on the cards.

Gwede Mantashe, a leading figure in Cosatu and secretary-general of the National Union of Mine Workers, said the alliance worked at its best when partner organisations were engaged in vigorous debate around issues of national importance: "When the labour movement is organised it imposes itself on policy discussions. Look at Gear. The ANC took short cuts on this issue, but today there is a reverse on that, as a result of our consistent engagement on economic policy."

Cosatu had repeatedly argued it would not be confined to narrow factory-floor issues and had been vocal about its right as an independent trade union federation to engage in political matters.

The Zimbabwe issue was a case in point, Mantashe said. Taking the debate outside closed alliance structures and into society had greater impact on government and society.

"It educates society as a whole on the issues that are in the interests of the country," Mantashe said.

He dismissed accusations within the ANC that Cosatu was acting less as a trade union and more as a political opposition: "We do not pretend to be an extension of (the) government. We do not pretend to be an extension of a political party ..."

Commenting on Cosatu's strategy as it engaged the government on key issues, political analyst Aubrey Mashiqi said that despite shedding membership, Cosatu had grown in stature politically.

Cosatu had been successful in holding the ANC to account on critical issues such as Black Economic Empowerment, the Public Service wage bill and Zimbabwe.

This contrasted sharply with the ineffective role of opposition parties like the DA in parliament, Mashiqi added.

Cosatu's outspoken stance on the need to roll out anti-retroviral treatment for HIV and Aids patients was what had given weight to the Treatment Action Campaign's moral and strategic battle, he said.