Johannesburg - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday it had been forced to reduce its food rations to millions of hungry people in Zimbabwe due to a lack of funding.

In an update on its feeding programme in Zimbabwe, the WFP said it had been forced to cut its cereal rations from 12 kilograms to 10 kilograms per person per month and its pulse rations from 1.8 kilogram to 1 kilogram per month in order to make the food go further.

Stockholm - An Anglican bishop from Zimbabwe on Monday expressed grave concern over the situation in his country, sentiments that were echoed by a Swedish cabinet minister.

"It is like a war, in the sense that there is total absence of peace," Bishop Sebastian Bakare told Swedish radio news.

Bakare was in Sweden to accept the Per Anger Prize, a human rights prize for his efforts at fighting oppression.

Johannesburg  - The suffering of Zimbabweans looked set to continue for some time to come Sunday after a summit of Southern African leaders tried but failed to breathe life into Harare's floundering power-sharing agreement.

After more than nine hours of talks among leaders of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai remained far apart on how to divide power.

Johannesburg  - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday rejected a proposal by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to share control of the disputed Home Affairs Ministry with President Robert Mugabe.

In a "poisoned" atmosphere like that currently between Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe's Zanu- PF, "quite clearly the concept of co-ministering cannot work," Tsvangirai said.

The party remains committed to a September 15 agreement to form a unity government with Mugabe, he said.

Johannesburg  - A summit of Southern African leaders called Sunday for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his arch-rival, prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai, to share control of the contested Home Affairs Ministry.

The dispute over the key internal security agency has threatened to sink a power-sharing deal that had offered a way out of Zimbabwe's political stalemate.

Johannesburg - Opening a regional summit on the political crisis in Zimbabwe South African President Kgalema Motlanthe expressed disappointment at the impasse in powersharing talks between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition and urged them to quickly reach agreement.

Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai are attending the meeting of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Johannesburg.

The conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a member of SADC, is also on the agenda of the meeting, which Congolese President Joseph Kabila is attending.