Gaborone - Botswana President Ian Khama said Thursday a power-sharing pact in neighbouring Zimbabwe was in danger of collapse as parties fail to agree on key issues eight months after joining forces.Despite the rifts, and criticism of what some call Khama's authoritarian leadership, the BDP is expected to win the parliamentary election easily despite the best efforts of a weak and fractured opposition.

Commenting on Zimbabwe, Khama said the power-sharing pact there was "limping along and there is a real danger that the whole thing could collapse."

His comments were made as Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called off a Cabinet meeting and any further Cabinet appointments after his close ally, Roy Bennett, was detained on terrorism charges in a court ruling his party said was a serious attack on the credibility of the inclusive government.

Khama has been the only southern African leader to criticise Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe. He refused to recognise Mugabe's government after the disputed, violence-plagued elections of March last year.

"If [the unity government] were to collapse for genuine reasons, we would certainly not recognise a Zanu-only government, or certainly not one headed by Mugabe, because he certainly did not win the presidential election last year," Khama said.

Khama said that though he supported the lifting of sanctions targeted against Mugabe and his allies, to help the unity process, this did not mean that "we want them to be let off the hook".

• A court in Zimbabwe will today consider Bennett's bail application - two days after his original bail on charges of terrorism was revoked. A member of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, Bennett is due to stand trial on Monday on charges of possession of weapons with intent to commit banditry, insurgency and terrorism.

By SAPA