Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and PM-designate Morgan Tsvangirai are deadlocked over the division of posts in the cabinet, the opposition says.
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said discussions were continuing to try to "find common ground".
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According to a power-sharing deal, the MDC and a breakaway faction will have 16 ministers in the new cabinet, while Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party will have 15.
Earlier, Mr Mugabe said establishing a coalition government was a humiliation.
But the president said the Zanu-PF had no alternative after losing the March parliamentary elections.
'Inconclusive'
On Tuesday, Mr Tsvangirai told the BBC that he was working to reassure President Mugabe that he had nothing to fear from the power-sharing agreement they signed on Monday.
How the power-sharing deal works
Before the parties met on Thursday to discuss the allocation of the 31 ministries in the cabinet, an opposition source said Zanu-PF wanted control of powerful portfolios such as finance, defence and information.
The MDC wanted an "equal share", the source added.
This includes three posts for one of its factions, whose leader Arthur Mutambara will be deputy prime minister.
Afterwards, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the talks had been "inconclusive", but that discussions were continuing
"It was a deadlock and has been referred to the negotiating teams for further work to try and find common ground," he told the Reuters news agency.
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(BBC)
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