Officials from Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change met last week for the first time since President Robert Mugabe's June 27 re-election, which was boycotted by the opposition and condemned by Western nations.

South Africa's government is mediating the talks in Pretoria.

"The president called the meeting in order to brief Mr. (Jean) Ping on developments in the Zimbabwe facilitation process," Mbeki spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said. He added they would meet on Friday.

Ping is the most senior permanent AU official.

The MDC has downplayed the importance of talks with the ZANU-PF and demanded that Mugabe's government halt violence against opposition supporters and recognize MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's victory in a March poll.

Tsvangirai won a March 29 election but failed to win the absolute majority required to avoid a second ballot. The MDC leader withdrew from the run-off citing a wave of attacks by pro-Mugabe militia.

The MDC said 113 of its activists have been killed in election-related violence.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has blamed the opposition for the bloodshed.

The AU has urged both sides to negotiate a power-sharing deal that would pave the way for a unity government, which is seen by many African leaders as the only way to avert further violence and total economic collapse in Zimbabwe.

The once prosperous African nation has the world's highest inflation rate, estimated to be at least 2 million percent, and unemployment hovers around 80 percent. Millions of its people have fled abroad in search of food and work.

Tsvangirai has come under African pressure to enter into full-blown negotiations with Mugabe, who has branded the MDC puppets of the West and vowed to never let them take power.

Mugabe, 84, says the opposition must recognize his landslide victory in the election last month.

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)