HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe may allow Zimbabwe's opposition to control key Cabinet positions in an effort to save faltering talks aimed at striking a power-sharing deal, a state-run newspaper reported Thursday.
The Herald newspaper quoted an unidentified official from Mugabe's ruling party as saying compromises could be made in the Cabinet lineup Mugabe unilaterally announced last week.
A negotiator for a small opposition faction said during a break in the talks that negotiators had reached a compromise on the finance and police ministries. He offered no details but said the deal could be completed Thursday. The talks continued into the evening without new announcements.
More than 40 women protesters gathered outside the hotel where the leaders were meeting and vowed not to let them leave until they reach agreement.
"No deal. No exit," read one placard. Another read: "Zimbabwe is hungry. We want a Cabinet today."
Mugabe had claimed the most powerful Cabinet posts for his own party, including the ministry in charge of police, seen as the enforcers of his rule in a country in the middle of an economic meltdown.
The opposition denounced the move and threatened to abandon talks on forming a unity government after disputed elections.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating the discussions with Mugabe, main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and Arthur Mutumbara, leader of the smaller opposition faction whose negotiator, Welshman Ncube, said a compromise was in the works.
Without a political agreement, Zimbabwe has been rudderless as its economy deteriorates. Inflation is 231 million percent. Food, medicine and most other basic goods are scarce. The U.N. estimates 45 percent of Zimbabwe's population, or 5.1 million people, will need food help by early 2009.
Organizers of a demonstration Thursday by a women's group urging politicians to resolve their differences and focus on Zimbabwe's suffering people said that police had arrested two of its leaders and dispersed the other protesters by beating them with sticks.
The national police spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on the incident in Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Bulawayo.
The demonstrators were carrying a statement from the civil rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise, accusing politicians of offering empty promises in their Sept. 15 agreement.
"How many more Zimbabweans must die before you act?" the statement said. "This is a national disaster and we demand food for all Zimbabweans now."
The group said that as about 200 of its members sat outside local government offices waiting for officials to come and hear their demands, riot police arrived and arrested leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu and dispersed the other protesters by beating them. The women's group said at least one protester required medical attention.
Police regularly crack down on protests by groups critical of the government. Williams and Mahlangu were jailed for five weeks this year after being arrested during a peaceful protest in the capital.
