Zimbabwe opposition leaders form anti-Mugabe alliance

Two leading opposition figures in Zimbabwe have formed an alliance to contest next year's general election against long-serving ruler Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party.

The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, signed the agreement with the sacked Zimbabwean Vice-President, Joice Mujuru, of the National People's Party (NPP).

 Mr Tsvangirai said the deal was a building block towards establishing a broad alliance to confront Mr Mugabe and his party, which has been in power since independence in 1980.

Ms Mujuru said the MDC and the NPP had worked on the agreement for the last six months and would now start negotiating specific details to strengthen their alliance.

 It's unclear which of the two will lead the coalition, and this could turn out to be a thorny issue, though most of the other opposition parties have endorsed Mr Tsvangirai as their presidential candidate.

 For his part, Mr Mugabe, 93, has said he was not losing any sleep over the proposed coalition. Zanu-PF has once again nominated Mr Mugabe as its presidential candidate in the poll.