Aid agencies say they can work again in Zimbabwe

Power-sharing talks over a unity government resumed Friday as President Robert Mugabe's government made good on a promise to allow aid agencies to resume operations in economically shattered Zimbabwe.

Oxfam and Save the Children said a government ban on their work had been lifted almost three months after it was imposed. The government had ordered independent aid agencies to stop work before a presidential runoff, accusing them of supporting opposition activists. The groups denied the accusations, and the ban had been widely condemned as a ploy by the governing party to manipulate voters.

A month ago, the governing party agreed to lift the ban to help open the way to power-sharing talks. The delay in fulfilling the pledge had been cited as proof Mugabe was not committed to the talks with the opposition, which had stalled over how much power he should surrender.

Earlier Friday, South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad was quoted by South African media as saying "all relevant players are in South Africa" for a new round of talks.

Mugabe opened an agricultural fair in Harare Friday, while his aides were in South Africa for negotiations. The fair was once a major event, but it has deteriorated in recent years along with Zimbabwe's farm-based economy.

In recent weeks, the negotiations focused on trying to bring Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai into a unity government.

The talks followed a key vote on March 29 during which Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change defeated Mugabe's party for the first time, but without the simple majority needed for an outright victory.

Mugabe was once immensely popular, but he has seen his standing eroded by heavy-handed treatment of opponents and by the sometimes violent seizure of white-owned commercial farms that wrecked Zimbabwe's agriculture sector - the base of what had been one of Africa's rare economic success stories.

Zimbabwe's government routinely blames the country's economic collapse on European and U.S. sanctions that target people and companies linked to Mugabe with travel bans and asset freezes.

Tsvangirai, who claimed he was denied a victory by vote fraud, was scheduled to face Mugabe in a June run-off. But the opposition leader dropped out of the race after weeks of violence aimed at his supporters. Mugabe held a one-man runoff that was widely condemned at home and abroad.

Tensions remain high between the two sides as they try to find a way forward by sharing power.

U.N. humanitarian agencies predict the number of Zimbabweans who will need help to stave off hunger will rise to more than 5 million by early next year.

Tsvangirai on Friday made public a letter he had sent to Mugabe's government a day earlier urging that the ban be lifted "to allow urgently needed humanitarian work to be carried out in the country."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the lifting of the ban, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in a statement issued at U.N. headquarters in New York.