Zimbabwe ? A third day of talks over Zimbabwe’s governance wound up on a conflicting note Tuesday amid reports that President Robert Mugabe and the leader of an opposition faction had reached a power-sharing agreement.

Shortly after the talks concluded, officials from Mugabe’s party and the main opposition movement said the two sides had agreed on the plan, but a spokesman for the splinter group later denied the claim.

The reported agreement excludes Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main Movement for Democratic Change. He won the first round of presidential elections in March but boycotted the runoff to protest widespread violence against opposition supporters.

Such an agreement would likely prompt protests from the West and some African governments for allowing the 84-year-old Mugabe to cling to his increasingly autocratic 28-year reign that has driven his once thriving nation to economic ruin.