Power sharing talks between the country's rivals entered a fourth day on Thursday still deadlocked, despite recent signs that a deal was imminent.

On Wednesday night the talks ended with Robert Mugabe reportedly refusing to sign a pact that would curtail his powers, despite making some concessions to Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC.

Briefing a traditional chiefs' conference in Bulawayo on Thursday, Mugabe said: "We have not gone anywhere. We are still stuck at the same point where those from the MDC still want to govern."

Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai sounded upbeat when they left the talks on Wednesday, with the ZANU PF leader saying there had been much progress, adding that, "we are signing tomorrow, we hope so."

Tsvangirai however was slightly more cautious, saying, "There is very little work left."

Journalist Dumisani Muleya told Newsreel that despite agreeing to a new constitution, and allowing Tsvangirai to serve on the national Security Council which has representatives from the army, police and intelligence services, Mugabe feels the MDC leader would then hold more power than him.

Meanwhile, the party negotiators continued their meeting in Harare while waiting for their principals to reconvene at 4pm on Thursday. There was optimism in MDC circles that Tsvangirai was ready to sign the deal, while in contrast there was gloom within ZANU PF circles that they had conceded far too much power to the MDC.

In the last two days, Mugabe has refused to sign a proposal that would entail an equal share of executive powers with Tsvangirai.

A source told us some of the remaining issues to be thrashed out Thursday included how many ministers each party will have, and how long a transitional government would rule.