Harare  - In a make-or-break moment for the country's historic powersharing deal, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai came together Monday to try to iron out their differences over the formation of a unity government.

Their talks, aimed at ending a four-month impasse on the implementation of the September accord, are being brokered by a three- man team from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), led by South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, SADC's official mediator in Zimbabwe, and Mozambique's President Armando Guebuza complete the trio.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai shook hands in September on a deal aimed at ending nearly a decade of political violence and economic hardship in the once prosperous southern African nation.

Under the terms of the deal, Mugabe remain president and Tsvangirai becomes prime minister of a Kenya-style unity government. But the agreement became bogged down in wrangling over which party should secure which posts and was never implemented.

Expectations for a breakthrough Monday were low, following intransigent statements from both sides in recent days.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa on Monday afternoon denied a report by South Africa's public radio SAfm that the talks were on the verge of collapse. "It's not true," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

An official from a breakaway MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, which holds the balance of power in parliament and is also participating in the talks told dpa the talks were progressing "slowly."

Mugabe told state media in Zimbabwe at the weekend that Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had a "last chance" Monday to join the government and that any outstanding issues should be dealt with afterwards.

The MDC, which took the most votes in parliamentary elections last year, responded by saying it would not "commit political suicide" by becoming a junior governing partner.

Speaking to reporters Monday Mutambara said he hoped that "Robert Mugabe and his party will respond positively to the demands" made by Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai's MDC is demanding, among other things, a fairer distribution of ministries and other key positions between it and Mugabe's Zanu-PF, as well as the release from detention of dozens of political prisoners. The party restated its demands in a position paper released while the talks were underway.

Zimbabwe's ongoing cholera and food crises have lent urgency to attempts to get a credible government up and running.

More than 2,200 Zimbabweans are estimated to have died of cholera since August following the breakdown of sewage and water systems and half the population of between 10 and 12 million require food aid.

The outbreak has spread across Zimbabwe's borders into neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia. In South Africa, the death toll rose sharply Monday, with
19 people reported to have succumbed to the disease in the north-eastern Mpumalanga province, a tourist hub.

Over 30 people in South Africa have succumbed to the disease in recent months. Until now, most of the more than 2,000 infection cases were concentrated in Limpopo province, near the busy Musina border crossing to Zimbabwe.

Mozambique's Health Minister Paulo Ivo Garrido, on returning from a visit to Zimbabwe Monday, called the situation dramatic.

"Today, life in Zimbabwe has little value. People die for nothing, they die for mere lack of medicine." dpa