Johannesburg — ZIMBABWEAN Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday Southern African Development Community (Sadc ) leaders meeting in Kinshasa had tasked the group 's organ on politics, defence and security to deal with the burning issues dividing the country's fragile inclusive government.

Tsvangirai told journalists Zimbabwe was not officially discussed at the summit in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, but was referred to the organ's troika of leaders.

The troika will be chaired by Mozambican President Armando Guebuza for the next year. The other members will be President Jacob Zuma and President Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola. The troika is usually composed of a chairman who is not the Sadc chairman in the year to come, his designated successor, and the chairman in the year before.

Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials told journalists in Kinshasa on Monday there would be an extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe soon, but yesterday they said there would be a gathering of the troika leaders instead, most likely in Maputo.

Tsvangirai said he had briefed Zuma, the outgoing Sadc chairman, on the Zimbabwe issue and had been pleased with his "speedy familiarisation and energy" in the matter. He said the Sadc troika would soon be "seized" with the issue, which needed to be "expeditiously resolved".

"I had the opportunity of briefing the outgoing chairman of Sadc, and indeed, Sadc is familiar with the concerns that we continue to have regarding outstanding issues in the GPA (global political agreement).

"In particular I wish to point out Sadc's commitment on the review of the inclusive government . Now that the Sadc troika is specifically vested with the matter of Zimbabwe, it is my hope and belief it will deal with outstanding issues as a matter of urgency.

"The legitimacy, credibility and indeed the existence of the inclusive government itself depends upon the expeditious resolution and enforcement of the agreement in full."

Zuma said at the official Sadc summit opening on Monday that although "significant" progress had been made in Zimbabwe, there was a need to remove "remaining obstacles" to implement the full agreement.

Tsvangirai said he was hopeful Guebuza and the new Sadc chairman, Congolese President Joseph Kabila, would break the Zimbabwe deadlock. But there are concerns that the two are widely viewed as pro-Mugabe.