Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former President Jimmy Carter are going to Zimbabwe on Saturday despite state-run media report advising them against the visit.

Zimbabwe has told former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former President Jimmy Carter, and Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, not to come to Zimbabwe on a humanitarian mission, state media reported.

Three members of the globally respected group of Elders, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former United States President Jimmy Carter, and international advocate for women and children's rights Graça Machel are expected to visit Zimbabwe next weekend to assess the escalating humanitarian crisis.

Impatience among the hungry and food relief operations put on the back foot by a nearly three-month ban are complicating an already desperate situation as Zimbabwe barrels towards its peak food crisis, less than two months away.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe looked set Tuesday to push ahead with a new government, sidelining opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after the latest failed regional mediation effort.

South Africa is to host a regional summit to discuss the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the stalled power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe on Sunday. Leaders from the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) will hold their extraordinary summit, to be chaired by South African President and Chairperson of the organ, Kgalema Motlanthe.

HARARE (Reuters) - Southern African leaders meet in Harare on Monday to try to salvage a power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and rescue Zimbabwe's economy from free-fall.

A cholera outbreak that has bridged Zimbabwe's dry season is proving difficult to contain and has spread from the cities to rural areas.

There are prospects of a power sharing deal being struck in war torn Somalia that would borrow from the examples of Kenya and Zimbabwe.

The MDC on Monday boycotted the SADC Troika discussions on Zimbabwe after its leader Morgan Tsvangirai was denied a passport to travel to Swaziland for the summit.