Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday said it would not participate in a government of national unity with President Robert Mugabe unless he met the party's conditions for sharing power.

Addressing journalists in Harare after a key party meeting, MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe said the MDC would not govern together with Mugabe unless the constitution was first amended to enshrine party leader Morgan Tsvangirai's powers as prime minister.

The MDC also wanted the issue of the "equitable distribution of ministerial portfolios" and a dispute over Mugabe's unilateral appointment of governors to be resolved, among other sticking points, before consummating September's power-sharing agreement.

On Wednesday, Mugabe's Zanu-PF party gave him the go-ahead to form a government with the MDC on his own terms - terms the MDC, which won the last parliamentary elections in March, have repeatedly rejected.

"In the event of an illegitimate government being unilaterally formed, the MDC will not be part of the same and will peacefully, constitutionally and democratically mobilize and campaign against the illegitimate government," the MDC warned.

On September 15, former South African president Thabo Mbeki got Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MDC breakaway faction leader Arthur Mutambara to sign up to a deal to govern together.

But the deal is on the verge of collapse, as Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe of grabbing all the key ministries for his party, including home affairs, information, local government, foreign affairs and defence, and of generally not being committed to sharing power.

At a meeting on the impasse last week in South Africa, the 15-nation South African Development Community (SADC) called on Zanu-PF and the MDC to urgently constitute the government and proposed they "co-minister" home affairs, the most hotly-disputed portfolio.

Tsvangirai was conspicuously absent from Friday's meeting. Khupe said he was "consulting" SADC leaders. (dpa)