Zimbabwe Leaders Vow to Continue With Constitutional Reforms

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said on Monday a new constitution was necessary and strongly condemned clashes between political rivals that halted a conference aimed at drafting reforms.

A convention to draw up a new constitution descended into chaos on Monday as riot police broke up clashes between rival delegates, underscoring the tensions within a unity government Mugabe formed with arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai in February.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai met to discuss the disturbances after riot police drove the delegates out of the venue and cordoned it off. The two, along with Arthur Mutambara who heads a splinter faction of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), jointly addressed the media after their meeting.

"We are here to say that we will not brook any further disturbances in the future. We must have this constitution done, it's a necessity," Mugabe told reporters.

"We feel disturbed and we have a sense of abhorrence with what happened this morning. What happened is not in accordance with the letter and spirit of the global political agreement. This is not the time to be shouting insults to each other."

Tsvangirai said he hoped the parliamentary committee driving the constitutional reforms would regroup and resume the process.

"We had provided our people with hope and we have people trying to undermine that hope," Tsvangirai said.

"I hope that the speaker of parliament and the parliamentary select committee can put the process back on rail as soon as possible because we need this constitution."

Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai ruled out a probe into the causes of the disruptions, stressing it was important to move forward.