Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement gives President Robert Mugabe the authority to appoint a 31- member cabinet while opposition parties will get a majority of the posts, said three officials from both Mugabe's party and the opposition.

The deal yesterday ended a six-month deadlock and cleared the way for an end to an economic crisis that has spawned the world's highest inflation rate, 11.2 million percent, and deepened a decade-long recession. Mugabe, 84, agreed to share power following pressure from neighboring countries and the African Union.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the 56-year-old leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, will become prime minister, heading a council of ministers, said the officials, who include a senior member of the MDC's governing national executive and two members of the politburo of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front. They declined to be identified because the deal is confidential until its official announcement on Sept. 15.

Tsvangirai will have two deputies, including one from a faction of the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara, the officials said. Zanu-PF will have 15 posts in the Cabinet, the MDC 13 and the Mutambara faction three, they said. The details of the agreement were earlier reported by Johannesburg's Star newspaper, which didn't say where it got the information.

`Difficult to Manage'

``The deal is significant as the positions were so far apart, so in that sense it represents progress,'' Mike Davies, an analyst at Eurasia Group in London, said in a telephone interview. ``But the real issues are in the details of the deal, it appears to be a complicated power-sharing agreement that will be difficult to manage, and it leaves significant amounts of executive power with Mugabe,'' Davies said.

Tsvangirai, a former labor leader, won a March 29 presidential ballot. He didn't exceed the 50 percent needed to avoid a second round of voting, according to the state-appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. His boycott of a presidential runoff in June, citing alleged state-sanctioned violence against his supporters, enabled Mugabe to extend his 28-year rule of the southern African nation.

Under yesterday's agreement, the council of ministers will be responsible for the day-to-day governing of Zimbabwe, the officials said. The Cabinet will review the work of the council, the official said, without elaborating.

The two MDC factions won control of the lower house of parliament in March elections, the first time Zanu-PF had been defeated since taking power in 1980 after winning a civil war against white-only rule.

`Significant Step Forward'

The accord is a ``significant step forward,'' European Commission spokesman John Clancy told reporters today in Brussels. The commission is ``cautiously optimistic,'' he said.

The agreement comes after Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara began talks on power sharing on July 21. The negotiations were mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki on behalf of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community. Details of the accord will be made public on Sept. 15, Mbeki said in a televised news conference from the city late yesterday.

``It is inevitable that it will succeed,'' Mbeki said. ``This agreement was made in Zimbabwe, it is owned by the Zimbabwean people and the rest of the world needs to respect that.''

The agreement should ``pave the way for a durable peace and recovery'' in the country, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement late yesterday. He said he hoped it will contribute to a ``rapid improvement in the welfare and human rights of the people of Zimbabwe, who have suffered for long.''

Mining Shares Rise

Mwana Africa Plc, Central African Mining & Exploration Co. and other companies with mining interests in Zimbabwe rose after announcement of the agreement.

Mwana, which controls nickel mines in the country, rose as much as 5 pence, or 20 percent, to 30.5 pence in London and traded at 28.75 pence at 8:11 a.m. local time. Central African, which plans to develop platinum mines in the country, jumped as much as 2.25 pence, or 10 percent, to 24.25 pence.

In 1987, Mugabe signed a power-sharing accord with Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union after Zimbabwean troops put down an armed insurrection by Nkomo's supporters in the southern Matabeleland and Midlands provinces. As many as 20,000 people are estimated to have died in what are known as the Gukurahundi massacres. Gukurahundi means spring rain, or rain that washes away the chaff.

Mugabe, whose party is predominantly Shona speaking, absorbed Nkomo's mainly Sindebele speaking Zapu to form the Zanu-Patritiotic Front party. Its stated aim was to form a one- party state guided by Marxist-Leninist policies.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Latham via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 12, 2008 08:24 EDT