JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have canceled their planned visit to Zimbabwe, reports from agencies said on Saturday.

   The move came after Annan and Carter were denied of entry visas, the reports said.

    "We had hoped to go to Zimbabwe this morning but we had to cancel because the (Zimbabwe) government has made it clear they will not co-operate," Annan told reporters in Johannesburg.

    The former UN chief also said the group had been denied of travel visas to Zimbabwe.

    Annan, Carter and rights activist Graca Machel, wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela, announced last week that they would visit Zimbabwe this weekend.

    However, the Zimbabwe government on Thursday advised them to defer their intended visit to a later date as Zimbabwe was currently occupied with the ongoing inclusive government talks and preparations for the summer cropping season.

    The Zimbabwe government also advised them to recognize that their intended visit had failed to recognize that Zimbabwe is currently in negotiations through the Southern African Development Community (SADC) facilitation and the country is currently busy on its agricultural activities and end of year programs.

    The Zimbabwean authorities also indicated that they were not in a position to handle the visit at this time of the year.

    In his statement issued earlier, Annan said they have no intention of interfering in talks of Zimbabwe 's unity government and the visit is aimed at making a first-hand assessment of the humanitarian situation in the country which has been facing political and economic crisis.

    The ruling and opposition parties of Zimbabwe signed a historical power-sharing deal in September but they have not reached consensuses on the allocation of key ministries since then.

Annan, Carter told to postpone visit to Zimbabwe 

    HARARE, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean government has advised former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and rights activist Graca Machel to postpone their intended visit to Zimbabwe, The Chronicle reported on Thursday.

    The three announced this week that they would visit Zimbabwe on Saturday to assess what they called the escalating humanitarian crisis. Full story

Zimbabwe opposition leader Tsvangirai in France to consult 


    HARARE, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe opposition MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who failed to attend his party's crucial National Council to have a postmortem on the outcome of SADC (the Southern African Development Community) Extraordinary Summit on the formation of an inclusive government on Friday, is apparently globe-trotting and now in France, The Herald reported on Monday.

    France is the current chair of the European Union, which has slapped Zimbabwe with sanctions that have condemned ordinary people to immense suffering. Full story

Zimbabwe opposition falls in confusion on joining inclusive gov't 


    HARARE, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Confusion surrounds the participation of Zimbabwe's opposition MDC-T in the proposed inclusive government as apparent contradictions have emerged between the party's national council and some senior officials in the political formation, The Sunday Mail said.

    Top council members are understood to be in favour of participation in the new government, but some of their counterparts are stifling progress by seeking to open issues that were concluded during the inter-party talks. Full story

Zimbabwe opposition MDC-T okays unity gov't 

    HARARE, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's opposition MDC-T national council has resolved that the party joins the envisaged inclusive government once the legislature has given legal force to the broad-based agreement signed on September 15, The Herald reported on Saturday.

    "The MDC (the Movement for Democratic Change) shall participate in a new government once Constitutional Amendment No. 19 has been passed and effected into law," reads the council's third resolution. Full story

Zimbabwe power-sharing talks resume in Harare 


    HARARE, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his major rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, resumed Monday talks, which stalled after the two sides signed a power-sharing deal in September but until now failed to agree on how to allocate the government ministries.

    The talks, joined by regional leaders, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC)'s security committee members, came after Tsvangirai boycotted a regional summit on Zimbabwe held in Swaziland one week ago. Full story