The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Johannesburg

Seeking a way out of their country's political crisis, Zimbabwean government and opposition officials met in South Africa, with the opposition pressing for an end to attacks on its supporters.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Thursday that he sent a team to Pretoria, the capital, led by his top deputy Tendai Biti to lay down conditions for talks - not to open negotiations.

Chief among the conditions is an end to violence blamed on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's supporters, he said.

"At present the state-sanctioned violence and repressive legislation employed by the regime is designed to silence the Zimbabwean people," Tsvangirai said in a statement. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change is "committed to finding a peaceful, negotiated solution to the Zimbabwean crisis and we will take every opportunity to clarify our position and to allow the voice of the Zimbabwean people to be heard," he said.

Recently, Mugabe's party has shown increasing eagerness to start talks, apparently in the hope of persuading U.N. Security Council members to reject a U.S.-drafted resolution to impose sanctions on Mugabe and some of his top political and security officials. The council is expected to vote on the resolution this week.

But Zimbabwe warned Thursday night that any more sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe could push the nation to civil war.

Those sanctions - Zimbabwe's U.N. mission said in a letter made available at the United Nations in New York - would lead to the removal of Zimbabwe's "effective government and, most probably, start a civil war in the country."

The opposition says more than 90 of its supporters have been killed since Tsvangirai won a first round of presidential elections in March. He did not win the 50 percent plus one vote necessary to avoid a runoff against second-place finisher Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's crisis has deepened since Mugabe claimed victory in a widely denounced June 27 presidential runoff in which he was the only candidate. Tsvangirai pulled out days before the race because of the violence.