South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has urged Southern African leaders to use their annual summit this weekend to help settle Zimbabwe's political crisis.

Opening the 28th summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Johannesburg on Saturday, Mbeki said the meeting should draw on its history of organising efforts to end white minority rule "to help put Zimbabwe on the right road to its recovery..."

Mbeki assumed the chairmanship of the SADC at the meeting, succeeding President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia. The summit is being attended by both Zimbabwe's principal political protaganists, Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF - who was seated as president of Zimbabwe - and Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Mbeki said the summit gave the region's leaders "the possibility to assist the Zimbabwean parties to finalise their negotiations so that together they can engage the work to achieve national healing and reconciliation and attend to the... reconstruction and development of Zimbabwe."

In this way, he added, Zimbabwe's leaders could "extricate the masses of the people from the dire straits in which they find themselves.

"Millions of Zimbabweans, both inside and outside Zimbabwe, await with great expectations and high hopes a positive outcome from our deliberations..."

Talks to form a powersharing government stalled earlier this week, reportedly because the MDC was unable to secure a written commitment recognising Tsvangirai as head of the government.