Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he will join a unity government with President Robert Mugabe almost a year after disputed polls, but the US and others questioned if it would work, AFP reported.
Heeding a call by Southern African leaders, Tsvangirai told reporters after a meeting of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that he will be sworn in as prime minister on February 11.
"We are unequivocal, we will go into this government," said Tsvangirai almost one year after disputed polls that plunged the country into crisis.
"The SADC (Southern African Development Community) has decided and we are bound by that decision," he said after his party's national council agreed it would go ahead with the unity government.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the decision, while also pressing for crucial development in Zimbabwe.
Ban urged the new government "to take all necessary measures to address the humanitarian and economic crises in the country and respect democratic freedoms", his press office said in a statement.
Regional leaders, who have long been trying to persuade the MDC to enter government with Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, held a crisis summit in South Africa at the start of the week when they urged the feuding parties to implement a stalled power-sharing agreement by mid-February.
The 15-nation bloc maintains that the accord signed last September remains the best chance of pulling Zimbabwe out of a political and economic crisis since the contested polls in March, but it has been held up by disputes over key posts.
Mugabe's government welcomed the decision, saying the opposition was moving away from outside influence.
"We welcome it, we expected them to do that," Information Minister Paul Mangwana told AFP.
"We are happy that for the first time they have now recognised themselves as Zimbabweans and we are happy that they are shifting from external influence and have started to reason like Zimbabweans," Mangwana said.
The 84-year-old president has long accused the MDC of being a tool of Britain and the United States, whose governments are opposed to his regime.
Both countries offered up restrained hope in response to the announcement Friday.
"I've seen the reports about this agreement, but as you can understand, we are a bit skeptical. These types of things have been announced before," US State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood said.
"The key is always implementation," he added.
Mugabe's party has already said it accepts the SADC timeframe, and had previously threatened to set up a unity government with or without Tsvangirai.
An equally tempered reaction emerged from London, where British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he looked forward to seeing details of a deal that would hold Zimbabwean lawmakers accountable.
"The new government will be judged on its actions, above all by the people of Zimbabwe," he said.
Friday's commitment to end the political stalement was welcomed by South Africa, which has faced increasing global pressure to act on the crisis as chair of SADC and broker of the unity deal.
The new government will pave the way for Zimbabwe's challenges to be tackled and for free and fair elections in the future, it said in a statement.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who brokered September's power-sharing deal, "described this development as a major step forward," his spokesman said in a statement.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner welcomed the MDC decision and called for the release of imprisoned opposition militants and human rights supporters.
Zimbabwe has been in meltdown since Tsvangirai pushed Mugabe into second place in first-round elections, before pulling out of the run-off citing violence against his supporters.
Mugabe in June declared a one-sided victory to govern a country where more than half the population is in need of food aid and inflation was last officially announced at 231 million percent.
The country has been further crippled by a cholera outbreak that has claimed more than 3,000 lives.