Visiting South African President Jacob Zuma has started a series of meetings with the principals in Zimbabwe's inclusive government to try and find a lasting solution to problems plaguing their power-sharing agreement.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) facilitator is currently meeting President Robert Mugabe, after which he will meet Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and then Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara. After that, he will meet all the three principals together.

Sources close to the meeting told Xinhua that the meetings will last the whole day and may spill to Thursday. A press conference will be held at the conclusion of the meetings.

The three Zimbabwean leaders, who entered into a power-sharing deal brokered by then South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2008, have been squabbling over "outstanding issues" which they argue scuttle the smooth running of the inclusive government, now just over a year old.

The two MDC factions led by Tsvangirai and Mutambara want the Zanu-PF leader Mugabe to reverse the appointments of provincial governors, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and Attorney-General Johannes Tomana. They want the posts of provincial governors to be allocated according to which party prevailed in the particular province during the 2008 legislative elections.

Gono is accused of having contributed the poor state of Zimbabwe's economy through dabbling in quasi-fiscal activities, while Tomana has declared that he supports Mugabe's party.

However, Mugabe and his party regard the issues as extraneous to the GPA.

Mugabe has also raised "outstanding issues" and wants the MDC factions, especially Tsvangirai's, to unequivocally call for the removal of sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States. The sanctions were imposed ostensibly on Mugabe and his inner circle, but have hurt ordinary Zimbabweans.

He also wants the MDC to stop radio stations hostile to Zanu-PF from broadcasting into Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai has since called for the removal of sanctions, but said the onus was on Zimbabweans to prove that the sanctions were no longer necessary through actions that convinced the international community that the country was firmly moving towards political and economic reforms.

Zimbabwe has been reeling from an economic meltdown since the turn of the century following international isolation over governance issues, with Britain and the United States leading the way.

As a result, millions of Zimbabweans have fled the country to seek economic refuge in neighboring countries, especially South Africa and Botswana, and Britain and the United States.

SADC has since the beginning of 2009 been trying to make the inclusive government work more smoothly, but differences over power-sharing have overshadowed the economic gains made so far.