The Principals to the Global Political Agreement on Monday failed to come to an agreement concerning the unilateral re-assignment of ministerial functions that were gazetted by government last week Friday.

Analysts said the latest stand-off between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai appears to have set back any previous progress made in earlier talks and has left a cloud of mistrust.

Mugabe, without any consultation with the Prime Minister or his deputy Arthur Mutambara, last week gazetted the legal instruments stating which minister is responsible for the administration of which Acts of Parliament.

The ZANU PF leader unilaterally stripped some ministers from both formations of the MDC of their powers, escalating tensions in the shaky inclusive government. Statutory instruments published in the state Gazette on Friday show that Mugabe trimmed down powers of the Ministry of Information and Technology and the Ministry of Labor, both controlled by the Tsvangirai MDC formation, and reassigned those powers to ministers of his own ZANU PF party.

Information Communications Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa lost key portfolios to Transport Minister Nicholas Goche. Goche thereby became the Minister of Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development, overseeing operations at state-run fixed-line telephone company TelOne, state cellular provider NetOne, Zimpost and their governing body, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.

Other Acts were assigned to the Office of the President and Cabinet, meaning that they will be under the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

Analysts point out that there is no constitutional provision for Acts to be administered by the Office of the President and Cabinet. The Acts assigned to the CIO are Emergency Powers Act (previously with Home Affairs) and the Interception of Communications Act.

Now that there is an inclusive government and a Prime Minister it would have been hoped that Mugabe would have consulted and agreed with the other two principals on the allocation of ministerial functions.

Nelson Chamisa, the MDC national spokesman, and one of the most affected in the trimming of powers, told SW Radio Africa the issue of ministerial functions was being handled by the principals.

'The MDC does not and will not support such moves. The party will defend what it got at the formation of this government,' he said.

Exiled journalist Makusha Mugabe said there was no reason for Robert Mugabe to cannibalize the MDC ministries, adding that his actions prove that as far as he is concerned, he is the only man in charge of the inclusive government.

'He might as well fire the ministers because all they do now is to go to their offices and do nothing. This does not make sense, otherwise why did he establish the ministries--appoint the ministers and strip them of their powers for no apparent reason,' Mukusha said.

He added; 'This proves to the MDC they are not dealing with a sincere person and we just wonder why SADC is not intervening when violations of the GPA have become numerous.'