Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai arrived Thursday at a Harare hotel for a third day of talks aimed at saving a faltering power-sharing deal.

Both parties sounded cautious going into the talks, mediated by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

Mugabe, who earlier had confidently said the talks would wrap up Thursday, declined to tell reporters when their negotiations would end.

"I can't say," he said, before heading into the talks.

Tsvangirai's lead negotiator Tendai Biti, who proclaimed late Wednesday that "history is being made," also sounded more cautious.

"Where is that optimism coming from?" he told reporters.

Mbeki has already mediated two days of talks between the rivals in a last-ditch bid to save a power-sharing deal that he brokered a month ago.

Under the pact, 84-year-old Muagbe would remain president while Tsvangirai takes the new post of prime minister.

But Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of the deal after Mugabe announced last weekend that he would award his own party the most important cabinet posts in the proposed unity government.

AFP