Officials with Zimbabwe's ruling party say President Robert Mugabe has reached a power-sharing deal with a breakaway opposition faction.

If confirmed, the deal between President Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara's party would effectively sideline opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Ruling party officials say the deal has already been signed, but a spokesman for Mutambara says that it not true.

The chief mediator for the Zimbabwe talks, South African President Thabo Mbeki, would not confirm a deal had been signed.  However, he said the Mutambara faction had agreed with Mr. Mubabe on all critical elements.

He said the talks had adjourned to give Tsvangirai more time to consider his position.

A senior official with Tsvangirai's party, Tendai Biti, said Tuesday the talks would most likely resume Wednesday.

Tuesday was the third day of talks aimed at reaching a power-sharing deal to end Zimbabwe's political crisis.

Tsvangirai won elections in March, but official results showed him falling short of the majority needed to avoid a run-off vote.  Tsvangirai boycotted the June run-off election because of attacks on his supporters, handing Mr. Mugabe an uncontested victory.

Human Rights Watch issued a report Tuesday, called "They Beat Me Like a Dog", accusing President Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and his allies of killing at least 163 people and beating and torturing more than 5,000 others since the March elections.

The governing party has denied similar accusations in the past.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.