Southern African leaders called on political rivals in Zimbabwe to form a joint government immediately, but the opposition rejected the group’s proposal as unworkable and unfair.

The Southern African Development Community called for a cease-fire and safe supply corridors in eastern Congo.

Leaders from the Southern African Development Community will meet to try to break the deadlock over the power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader.

Fifteen heads of state from across southern Africa will try again soon to resolve Zimbabwe’s festering political crisis, now dragging into its eighth month.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, said that negotiations had failed to break a deadlock in power-sharing talks, and he called for intervention by African leaders.

JOHANNESBURG ? President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed to close a power-sharing deal at a conference of regional leaders here over the weekend ? a deal that the mediator, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, had said was within reach.

Zimbabwe?s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was clearly sending a forceful message about the limits of his willingness to compromise.

Zimbabwe?s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was clearly sending a forceful message about the limits of his willingness to compromise.

The apparent breakthrough occurred after South Africa?s president, Thabo Mbeki, proposed forming a team drawn from African regional bodies and the United Nations.

Robert Mugabe arrived in Egypt after a runoff vote in Zimbabwe that world leaders called illegitimate.