Harare — Government says dialogue with the European Union to normalise relations between the two will resume in Harare soon with both sides working on their commitment plans.

In separate interviews yesterday, both Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and his Regional Integration and International Co-operation counterpart Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the talks were progressing.

Despite this optimistic outlook, the Swedish Embassy in Harare yesterday chose to claim the talks were at a standstill and blamed Government for lack of progress.

Sweden is the current EU president. Minister Mumbengegwi said: "There is movement in the sense that both sides are working on their commitment plans and will soon meet to discuss issues."

He would not say when dialogue was expected to resume, but Minister Misihairabwi-Mushonga said this would be "within a week's time". "We instructed our officials to proceed with the engagement and they would be meeting EU ambassadors soon to restart dialogue," she said.

She dismissed claims by the Swedish Embassy that the talks were at a standstill. "There is nothing like that. We went to Brussels and launched the EU discussion.

"We agreed on the terms of reference. We also agreed that EU ambassadors would meet our senior officials to start dialogue. "Dialogue is starting soon as we gave the senior officials the political mandate to restart it," she added. The Swedish Embassy yesterday said it was waiting for "movement" on Government's side.

"The EU is waiting for movement on the Zimbabwe Government side. It has waited for 10 weeks now for that movement. There has been no movement since June," said an embassy official who declined to be named.

The EU set up a troika comprising the Swedish and Czech ambassadors in Harare and the Head of the European Commission in the country to interface with Zimbabwe Government officials to facilitate the normalisation of relations between the country and the bloc.

Zimbabwe is represented in the dialogue by senior officials from the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Regional Integration and International Co-operation, Justice, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, and Industry and Commerce.

The Zimbabwe delegation is expected to table its commitment plan in implementing the Global Political Agreement and a timeframe for thrashing out issues of concern to the EU.

On the other hand, the EU is expected to submit its commitment plan to address the illegal sanctions it imposed on the country and the restoration of normal relations. The current efforts to normalise relations started when Minister Mumbengegwi met the former British Junior Foreign Minister Mark Malloch-Brown in South Africa on the sidelines of President Jacob Zuma's inauguration as President in May this year.

Zimbabwe and the EU subsequently decided to hold a high-level meeting in Brussels, Belgium. However, the resumption of formal dialogue nearly failed to take off following attempts to bar Zanu-PF officials in the Government delegation from travelling for the talks.

Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara had to intervene at the 11th hour as per President Mugabe's instruction to force British and French embassies to issue visas to three Cabinet ministers, namely Minister Mumbengegwi, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Mines Minister Obert Mpofu.

Even then, German officials detained Minister Chinamasa for six hours at Frankfurt International Airport and he missed the opening session of the talks.

The talks were held in the context of Article 8 of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, which provides the parameters for engagement between EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific bloc.