Harare - Zimbabwe's prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday said former South African president and mediator Thabo Mbeki had to show impartiality or the political power- sharing deal being negotiated would not materialize.

Addressing a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in a farming town of Marondera, about 70 kilometres east of Harare, Tsvangirai said: Mr Mbeki, there is only one message: when you have started a job finish it well."

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday ratcheted back an earlier threat not to participate in a regional meeting on the crisis in Zimbabwe, saying party leader Morgan Tsvangirai would attend, despite still lacking a passport.

"Yes, he is attending. But he still doesn't have his passport," MDC spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said, referring to Monday's meeting of a group of leaders from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the 15-nation regional political alliance.

Harare - Firemen in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, are so hungry they have gone on strike, according to state media.

The state-controlled daily Herald reported that firemen downed their hoses on Tuesday after their employer, the Harare city council, stopped issuing them with food while at work.

"Only two firefighters and two officers reported for work yesterday (Tuesday)," the Herald said. "The officers alleged that the city had reneged on an arrangement to provide them with food while on duty."

Harare - The leader of President Robert Mugabe's notorious war veterans militia has threatened prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai over his failure to turn up this week for a regional summit on the Zimbabwean crisis in Swaziland.

The meeting of the politics and security troika of the Southern African Development Community, the 15-nation regional alliance, was meant to discuss the five-week stalemate in the implementation of a power-sharing agreement between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the two groupings of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change.

Tsvangirai refused to travel to the summit after Mugabe's regime refused to issue him with a new passport, giving him only an emergency travel document.

Harare - Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) threatened Tuesday that party leader Morgan Tsvangirai would boycott another meeting of the Southern African Development Community on the Zimbabwean crisis unless he received a passport.

Tsvangirai did not attend a SADC meeting in Swaziland on Monday at which the breakdown in talks between his party and President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party on the formation of a unity government was discussed. Mugabe attended the meeting.

Washington - The United States will consider more sanctions against Zimbabwe if President Robert Mugabe does not follow through on commitments to set up a power-sharing government, the US State Department said Monday.

"Should Mugabe renege on this power-sharing agreement, the United States ... is prepared to impose additional sanctions," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.