Harare — PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has apologised to President Mugabe for the boycott of last Monday's Cabinet meeting by ministers drawn from his party, MDC-T, which behaviour the President described as "insolence".

Speaking to journalists in Libya on Saturday, President Mugabe said he had discussed the matter with the Prime Minister, who apologised for the conduct of the ministers who opted to go and welcome the PM at Harare International Airport instead.

PM Tsvangirai was returning from a tour of Europe and the United States, where he had been sent by President Mugabe and Cabinet to call for the lifting of economic sanctions and press for economic assistance for the inclusive Government.

"We talked a bit about it with the Prime Minister and he apologised for it, and thought they should have come; and if they had any grievances, aired their grievances in the meeting.

"It was a surprise to me, to tell you the truth. I don't know whether this is going to be the order of doing things. It's insolence, on one hand, but it's also abysmal ignorance, on the other," the President said.

MDC-T ministers boycotted last Monday's Cabinet meeting, drawing a stinging rebuke from other members of the inclusive Government, who said the move was highly disrespectful of the President and Cabinet and against the spirit of inclusivity.

The Cabinet session, which had been brought forward by a day to accommodate President Mugabe's departure for the African Union Summit in Libya, however, went ahead and dealt with all matters on the agenda, according to Media, Information and Publicity Minister Webster Shamu.

Sources said Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara condemned the MDC-T move during the Cabinet meeting, saying the boycott was unnecessary as there were proper channels to air grievances or resolve sticking issues regarding the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

Observers said as the highest policy-making body enshrined in the Constitution, Cabinet deserved the respect of all its members and needed to be shielded from the parochial agendas and whims of individual political parties.

MDC-T vice president Thokozani Khupe told a Press conference last week that her party was not happy with the reasons advanced for bringing Cabinet sitting to Monday instead of the traditional Tuesday, hence the decision to boycott.

She claimed that the Cabinet meeting had been "unilaterally moved from Tuesday to Monday to deny the recognition of the Prime Minister as chair of Cabinet when the President is away".

However, President Mugabe who is the Head of State and Government  chairs Cabinet, and when he is away, Cabinet does not convene.

Last Monday's incident was also not the first time that Cabinet had sat on a day other than Tuesday as three sittings earlier it had convened on a Wednesday as is the case with this week's session.