Zimbabwe President meets top US official

HARARE, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe met U.S. Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson on the sidelines of the 13th Ordinary Session of the African Union General Assembly in Sirte, Libya on Thursday.

The meeting with Carson was the first time in several years that a senior member of the U.S. administration has met President Mugabe, The Herald said on Friday.

Sources who attended the meeting said Mugabe had a frank discussion with Carson who requested the meeting, and was briefed on the process that led to the formation of the inclusive government, its current state and the working relations between the three parties involved.

Mugabe, the sources said, told Carson that the government was working well. The meeting comes in the wake of recent attempts by some in the West to trash the inclusive government by claiming that it was failing to meet set "benchmarks" even though all the parties that signed the Global Political Agreement have given the arrangement a clean bill of health and pledged their commitment to resolving any problems arising from the implementation of the agreement among themselves.

During Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's recent tour of Western capitals, the "benchmarks" were cited as an excuse to maintain the sanctions regime on Zimbabwe and to deny the country development support.

Carson, a career African-American diplomat, served as U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe between 1995 and 1997, and ended his tenure just before the bilateral dispute over land with Britain flared up.