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Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he will pull out of Zimbabwe's national unity government if President Robert Mugabe refuses to cede key ministries.

Mr. Tsvangirai issued his threat a day after President Robert Mugabe's party published a list Saturday claiming all key posts in the proposed unity cabinet.

Among them, Mr. Mugabe claimed defence, home and foreign affairs, justice, mining and land.

The list allocated only a number of lesser portfolios to Mr. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, which won a slight parliamentary majority in elections earlier this year .

The opposition leader told a rally of 15,000 supporters Sunday that even “an idiot” wouldn't agree to the deal.

He described the Mr. Mugabe offer as not power sharing but “power grabbing.”

Mr. Tsvangirai won the first round of presidential elections in March but dropped out of a run-off vote because of widespread violence against his supporters.

A power-sharing agreement signed Sept. 15 gave Mr. Tsvangirai the post of prime minister but talks have since deadlocked over the makeup of the cabinet.

Mr. Tsvangirai said that if Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party retained the defence portfolio, then the Movement for Democratic Change must be given Home Affairs, which is responsible for the police.

“This is not negotiable,” said Mr. Tsvangirai, whose supporters have suffered from police brutality.

He said he would continue to negotiate with good faith when former South African president Thabo Mbeki arrived Monday.

“But that doesn't meant compromise for compromise sake,” he said.

Mr. Mugabe's party maintains that Mr. Mbeki only needs to mediate over one outstanding ministry — finance — and claims all other ministries are settled.

Mr. Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, defended the proposed cabinet distribution, accusing the opposition of having close alliances with “rich friends” in the West that threatened Zimbabwe's sovereignty, the official Sunday Mail newspaper reported.

Under the power-sharing agreement, the opposition gets 16 cabinet seats and Mr. Mugabe's party gets 15, reflecting official results of parliamentary elections held in March.

Mr. Mugabe remains president and head of the cabinet, and Mr. Tsvangirai, as prime minister, heads a council of ministers responsible for government policy that Mr. Mugabe does not attend.

Mr. Mbeki negotiated the power-sharing deal signed by Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai on Sept. 15 but since then has been ousted as South African president leaving him with less diplomatic clout.

Meanwhile, the country's humanitarian crisis is worsening as delays in forming the government have dashed hopes of an inflow of aid.

The UN World Food Program predicts a famine emergency with 45 per cent of the country's population needing food aid by early 2009.

Zimbabwe's economic collapse, with annual inflation hovering around 231 million per cent, has kept seeds, fertilizer and farming equipment out of the reach of many. The country faces chronic shortages of food, medicine, gasoline and electricity.