Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday signed a historic power-sharing deal aiming to end months of political turmoil.

Mugabe, 84, was greeted with some jeers as he entered the Rainbow Towers hotel in Harare for the ceremony. Tsvangirai was applauded by the audience, made up mostly of members of the opposition-dominated parliament.

“One of the triumphs for Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change is the agreement that a new constitution will be drafted within the next 18 months and will contain calls for free and fair elections,” says FRANCE 24’s regional correspondent in Cape Town, Alex Duval Smith.

The details of the agreement are to be formally revealed later on Monday. However, Tsvangirai, who co-founded the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will become prime minister in a new government brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, sources close to the talks said.

While questions remain over whether the power-sharing deal can work in practice, Mbeki has expressed confidence it will allow Zimbabwe to address an economic meltdown that has caused major food shortages.

Tsvangirai underlined that he would tackle these shortages during the ceremony. “The first priority of this government is to unlock the food already accessible in our country and to distribute it,” he said.

Last-minute political wrangling

According to Duval-Smith, the historic deal-signing ceremony started late due to last-minute wrangling over the division of ministries. “That very delicate question of who gets Defense and Home Affairs, in other words who gets the army and the police, could be holding up the ceremony,” said Duval Smith before the deal was signed.

Tsvangirai will manage 31 ministers split between Mugabe’s ZANU-PF with 15, MDC-Tsvangirai with 13 and MDC-Mutambara, a smaller opposition faction, with three, a source close to the talks said.

After signing the deal, Tsvangirai said, “the hand with which I sign this agreement is the hand I extend to President Mugabe for the well-being of the nation.” As prime minister, he is expected to chair a council of ministers which is responsible for the day-to-day managing of the country's affairs.

A number of Western nations, including the United States and Britain, have cautiously welcomed the accord saying they would wait to study its full details. The European Union is taking a wait-and-see attitude to Zimbabwe's new power-sharing deal, leaving its sanctions unchanged but ready to reconsider them next month, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday.

Action needed to restore Zimbabwe’s economy

The deal has raised hopes that the country's economic freefall can now be effectively addressed. Over the past decade Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed, leading to the world's highest inflation rate, chronic shortages of foreign currency and food, skyrocketing unemployment and widespread hunger.

The MDC leader, who finished ahead of Mugabe in the March first-round presidential poll but officially fell short of an outright majority, has often been labelled a "stooge" of the West by Mugabe and his supporters. Tsvangirai's supporters claimed their man had won the first round presidency vote outright.

In June 2008, Tsvangirai withdrew from the presidential run-off, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters. Mugabe proceeded with the disputed one-man vote, which he predictably won overwhelmingly.