Johannesburg - Nelson Mandela on Monday paid tribute to singer and fellow anti-apartheid icon Miriam Makeba, calling her "South Africa's first lady of song."

"The sudden passing of our beloved Miriam has saddened us and our nation," the former South African president and Nobel laureate said.

"It was fitting that her last moments were spent on a stage, enriching the hearts and lives of others - and again in support of a good cause," he added.

Rome, Johannesburg - Tributes began pouring in Monday for South African singer and anti-apartheid icon, Miriam Makeba, who died Sunday from a heart attack in an Italian clinic.

Makeba, 76, collapsed shortly after a performance on Sunday evening and was brought by ambulance to a hospital in Castel Volturno in southern Italy, where she died, a hospital director said.

"She arrived at the Pineta Grande hospital at around 11:15 on Sunday night. By then her heart had stopped beating and all attempts to revive her were unsuccessful," the director, Francesco Longanella, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Johannesburg  - Miriam Makeba, South Africa's "Mama Africa", who died at 76 in Italy on Sunday, was the much-loved voice of her country's anti-apartheid struggle during her long years in exile and an ambassador for African music in the West.

Born outside Johannesburg on March 4, 1932, in Soweto township, Makeba was the first female African musician to receive a Grammy award, which came in 1966 for her album with Calypso king Harry Belafonte, entitled An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba.

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.