Harare: Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe is ready to step down after he accepted he failed to win the country's presidential election, a senior source in his ruling party and diplomats told AFP Today.

An official in Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said the president was prepared to step down after 28 years in power but was still trying to win agreement from the army's chief of staff Constantine Chiwenga. Three European diplomats meanwhile said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was ready to deliver a press conference to confirm the news. "He is prepared to step down because he doesn't want to embarrass himself by going to a run-off," the ZANU-PF source said on condition of anonymity. "There is only one person still blocking him, the army chief of staff."

Senior diplomats in the capital Harare meanwhile confirmed that a deal had been done for Mugabe to step aside in favour of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. "Everything indicates that Mugabe will leave power smoothly," said one of the sources. A second European diplomat said that Tsvangirai had called a press conference for later in the evening.

"It (the press conference) indicates at least that Tsvangirai feels secure and that he has something to say." Various sources had earlier confirmed that senior members of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party and aides to Mugabe had been holding negotiations about an exit strategy since yesterday.

Source : PTI