There are fears the SADC summit set for Pretoria next week is doomed before it even starts, after ZANU PF hardened its stance and declared it will not meet any of the demands of the MDC-T, on the formation of a new government.

The regime's chief negotiator, Patrick Chinamasa, was speaking at a press conference in Harare Friday. He added that a number of the issues were better handled by an all-inclusive government. However Chinamasa misled reporters by proclaiming that demands made by the MDC were new. The MDC has since the power-sharing deal in September last year emphasized that it will not join a unity government whilst there were outstanding issues to be resolved.

On Thursday MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had told reporters their demands should be met first, before a unity government is formed. He explained that efforts to implement a power-sharing deal with Robert Mugabe had stalled over the failure to address issues related to the allocation of key ministries, allocation of provincial governors and the release of detained activists.

Hebson Makuvise, the MDC chief representative in the UK, said Chinamasa was not being flexible or reasonable by uttering such statements. He said such rhetoric usually comes from people who lose an election, adding that Chinamasa insinuated during the briefing that their demands were new, when they were not.

'This is not power-sharing and these are not new demands as Chinamasa incorrectly states. They want to impose individuals who lost elections on the people of Zimbabwe. Speaking of governors, the majority of them lost in the elections and Mugabe wants to give them another life at the expense of the MDC. We will not accept that and any other normal thinking person will do the same,' Makuvise said.

Disagreements over these issues led to the break down of Monday's talks, chaired by South African President and SADC chair Kgalema Motlante.

Chinamasa said when Mugabe made the appointments of governors late last year, he was not under an obligation to consult anyone and so the appointments were legal and could not be terminated.

'Our position is that we will not meet any new demands made by the MDC. There is no way we can terminate their (governors) mandate before the expiry of their tenure. But if a vacancy occurs in an all-inclusive government it is natural that the president consults over new appointments,' he said.

The MDC argues ZANU PF is being intransigent and unreasonable by grabbing all governorships, even in provinces where they lost dismally.

The MDC-T had suggested that they should be allocated five posts of governors in Manicaland, Masvingo, Bulawayo, Harare and Matabeleland North - these are the areas where the party received the majority of seats on a province by province basis in the elections for parliamentary seats.

MDC-T also say MDC-M should have Matabeleland South, and Zanu-PF should have the four remaining provinces.

On the MDC's demand to share ministerial posts equally, Chinamasa said, 'the issue had already been dealt with by SADC. We are not going to agree to a reopening of the subject on allocation of ministers. Instead, we will abide by the SADC resolution and co-minister the Home Affairs Ministry.'

But analysts point to the fact that Mugabe unilaterally grabbed the influential posts, without consulting Tsvangirai or Mutambara, as stipulated in the Global Political Agreement.

The GPA also states that the MDC-T should appoint half of Zimbabwe's ambassadors. But Chinamasa said; 'We will not recall them, but if a vacancy occurs then the all-inclusive government will make new appointments.

So any hopes for a breakthrough during Monday's extraordinary summit in Pretoria look dim. Many politicians in the region now believe that if SADC fails to resolve the stalemate, fresh elections internationally supervised by the United Nations, might be an option to be considered.

Tony Leon, Foreign Affairs spokesman for South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance, was on Thursday critical of both his government and SADC's efforts to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis. He labelled the SADC bloc a 'toothless bulldog.'

He told journalists that Zimbabwe needed to hold properly convened, internationally certified, national elections.

'You cannot use flawed electoral outcomes as the basis for a post-settlement government of national unity. It actually suggests that somehow democracy is not fit for Africa... that you can't actually have a democratic election,' Leon said.

The EU is set to adopt tougher targeted sanctions against Mugabe's regime during their regular monthly meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, on Monday.

The 27-nation bloc last beefed up targeted sanctions in December. At that time the list of people covered by restrictions contained 168 names and 40 companies. 50 new individuals and companies are going to be added to this list.