JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition MDC and President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF will begin negotiations on a power-sharing deal in earnest on Thursday, officials said on Wednesday.

The rivals kicked off preliminary talks on Tuesday aimed at ending Zimbabwe's crisis, South African President Thabo Mbeki's spokesman said. He declined to say what was discussed on Tuesday.

"I won't talk about what it is. I will say talks resumed, and talks are continuing," Mukoni Ratshitanga said. "They have started more or less. (They will be) in earnest tomorrow."

Mbeki, mediating in the crisis, secured a framework deal between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday for talks aimed at ending the deadlock since Mugabe's re-election on June 27 in a poll boycotted by the opposition because of violence.

Pressure for power-sharing has come from regional states concerned by the political and economic crisis that has forced millions of refugees to flee to Zimbabwe's neighbors, most of them to South Africa.

Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper said Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Public Services Minister Nicholas Goche would represent ZANU-PF at negotiations, while the MDC would be represented by secretary-general Tendai Biti and deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma. A splinter faction of the MDC would also have two negotiators at the talks.

The MDC says 120 of its supporters have been killed since a first round of elections on March 29, in which Tsvangirai beat Mugabe but without the absolute majority to avoid a run-off. Mugabe blames the opposition for the bloodshed.

DIFFERENCES

The main aim of the Pretoria talks will be the creation of a government of national unity, but the two sides differ on who should lead it and how long it should stay in power.

Mbeki has said the Zimbabwean parties face a tight two-week deadline to conclude the talks, which are expected to be tense and possibly acrimonious. The MDC has accused Mugabe and ZANU-PF of violating human rights and rigging elections.

The European Union on Tuesday increased pressure on Mugabe, saying it had agreed additional sanctions on Zimbabwe to target 37 more individuals and four companies linked to the government.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday that Britain will press ahead with its sanctions policy.

"We'll continue with the policy of sanctions to continue the pressure that is necessary so there is a fair outcome of any negotiations to the benefit of the people of Zimbabwe," Brown said at a joint news conference with Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga at Downing Street.

Odinga, whose own country's presidential election last year was disputed and violent, said Mugabe should be given a decent exit and that people around the Zimbabwean leader wanted him to play a role in a unity government for about two years.

"A decent exit would mean that Mugabe is given a role to play for an interim period of time -- I understand his friends are suggesting about 24 months -- after which elections will be held in Zimbabwe. But in that period of time he can stay on as a ceremonial president if you like with an executive prime minister until the elections are held," Odinga said.

Mugabe, 84, has dismissed the MDC as a puppet of the West and vowed never to let it take power. The president, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has also insisted that the opposition accept his unopposed victory last month.

Zimbabwe's economy has been in freefall since 2000, with the world's highest modern-day inflation at over two million percent, a virtually worthless currency, crippling food and fuel shortages and 80 percent unemployment.

(Additional reporting by Nelson Banya in Harare and Katherine Bladwin in London; Writing by Marius Bosch; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

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