The three principals to the Global Political Agreement met in Harare on Monday for a first crisis summit, since the MDC disengaged from ZANU PF ten days ago.

Morgan Tsvangirai's spokesman James Maridadi told SW Radio Africa that the meeting was set to discuss the issue of disengagement and the other outstanding issues related to the GPA. Maridadi stressed that this was not their regular Monday meeting but a 'meeting to resolve issues that threaten to derail the inclusive government.'

The meeting comes ahead of a planned visit by a SADC ministerial taskforce to Harare to discuss the latest political crisis to rock the shaky coalition government.

The planned trip by the 'fact finding' team follows last week's regional diplomatic offensive by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who flew back to Harare last Friday evening.

Maridadi said the fact that SADC was sending a team to Zimbabwe highlighted that there was a genuine problem that needed to be resolved.

'It's clear that ZANU PF is dragging its feet on all the political and economic reform proposals that were agreed at the formation of the inclusive government. You also get a sense that even key SADC leaders are tiring of the continuing crises in the country and their negative effects on the region,' Maridadi said.

Tsvangirai's shuttle diplomacy saw him meeting SADC chairperson and Democratic Republic of Congo leader Joseph Kabila, President Guebuza of Mozambique, South African President Jacob Zuma and Jose Eduardo dos Santos, President of Angola. Part of his mission was to garner regional support in his fight to get Mugabe to commit to the agreement signed last year.

'In terms of the objectives of the trip, the Prime Minister is happy that it was successful because he was able to convey to key SADC leaders the problems rocking the inclusive government,' Maridadi said.

The leaders, said Maridadi, are well aware of the problems and have taken immediate action to try to save the inclusive government from collapsing.

'President Guebuza undertook to send a fact finding mission of the SADC Troika to Harare to assess the current crisis. It's not business as usual, there is a crisis in the country and it is the responsibility of SADC as guarantors to ensure that they intervene to mediate in the crisis,' Maridadi said.

He added that President Kabila has also undertaken to fly to Harare to meet with the feuding parties. Maridadi said the leaders were clear that the Global Political Agreement needed to be fully implemented as agreed to by all the three parties in the unity government.

Nonetheless analysts remain doubtful that SADC will actually tackle the problem head on, given their ongoing 'quiet' diplomatic approach and general support for Mugabe.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity has ordered Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and state-controlled newspapers to stop providing any news coverage of MDC-T ministers, until the party reverses its decision to suspend contact with ZANU PF.

Reports over the weekend said ZBC chief executive, Happison Muchechetere, told the state broadcaster's senior editors about the directive on Friday evening.