HARARE - ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe will 'certainly' form a new government if opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai does not sign a power-sharing deal on Thursday, state media reported.

'If after tomorrow (Thursday), Tsvangirai does not want to sign. We will certainly put together a cabinet. We feel frozen at the moment", Thursday's edition of the The Herald quoted Mr Mugabe as saying on his return from Zambia late Wednesday.

'We are a government and we are government that is empowered by elections. We should form a cabinet. We would not allow a situation where we will not have a cabinet forever,' he added.

Zimbabwean media reported that South African President Thabo Mbeki, the mediator in the talks, was expected in Zimbabwe on Thursday as part of the negotiations, but his spokesman denied the reports.

'The president is not going to Zimbabwe,' Mbeki spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said, adding however that the power-sharing talks were continuing.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Wednesday that the talks were deadlocked over Mr Mugabe's desire to retain control of the country's security forces.

A power-sharing deal put forward under Mr Mbeki proposed that Mr Tsvangirai become prime minister and Mr Mugabe retain the presidency in an inclusive government.

The deal would have seen economic and social ministries report to the prime minister and security ministries answering to the president, including the army and police which Mr Tsvangirai said Mr Mugabe had used to 'brutalise' people.

Zimbabwe's crisis intensified after Mr Mugabe's re-election in a widely condemned June presidential run-off in which he was the only candidate.

Mr Tsvangirai boycotted the election despite finishing ahead of Mugabe in the March first round, citing rising violence against his supporters. -- AFP