Zimbabwean prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai said today the country's new unity government was broke and unable to meet union demands for higher wages.
Addressing a May Day rally, Mr Tsvangirai said the government he formed with president Robert Mugabe in February to try to end a political and economic crisis that has brought Zimbabwe to ruin would maintain the current monthly salary of $100 that it is paying its workers.
"This government is broke, and we are only able to pay the $100 allowance, but when things improve, we want this allowance to graduate into a proper salary," he said. "For now, everyone, all of us, including President Mugabe, is getting $100".
Meanwhile, Britain said today it wants to see more reforms in Zimbabwe before it can consider large-scale aid for the shattered country.
Zimbabwe's finance minister Tendai Biti held talks in London yesterday with foreign secretary David Miliband and Africa minister Mark Malloch-Brown - the first official meetings in nine years between ministers from the two countries.
The British ministers told Mr Biti that "not only the UK but the international community as a whole needs to see significant further progress" in implementing a power-sharing agreement, a senior British official said.
Mr Malloch-Brown told Mr Biti that Britain would like to see a "road map" setting out actions and target dates for implementing a power-sharing agreement between Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, the official said.
"A road map of some sort ... would be a useful means of continuing to give the international community confidence in the momentum behind the change that's going on," the official said.
Zimbabwe's new unity government has appealed for international help to rebuild the economy after a decade of economic contraction, hyperinflation and chronic shortages of basic goods. It says it needs about €6.2 billion for the task.
Reuters