GABORONE, August 3, 2008 (AFP) - Botswana, a harsh critic of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, may boycott an upcoming regional summit if the veteran leader clings to power without a negotiated settlement, the foreign minister has said.

'We are waiting for Zimbabwe to produce a government,' Phandu Skelemane told AFP in an interview on Saturday, referring to power-sharing talks aimed at resolving the neighbouring country's political crisis.

'Whoever the Zimbabwean negotiators agree on, we will be happy to sit down with. We can only boycott the forthcoming SADC summit if we feel the democratic process of setting up a new Zimbabwean government was questionable.'

His comments followed reports in local media that Botswana would boycott the August 16-17 summit of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) if Mugabe attends as Zimbabwe's head of state.

Last month, Botswana urged its neighbours not to recognise Mugabe's re-election in a one-man, second-round presidential poll in June and reiterated calls for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the SADC.

Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai finished ahead of Mugabe in the March first round of the presidential election, but boycotted the June run-off vote, citing rising violence against his supporters.

Power-sharing talks between Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition resumed on Sunday, on the eve of the expiry of a two-week deadline the rivals had set to conclude the discussions.

Botswana would recognise a deal that keeps the 84-year-old Mugabe in power if it results from fair negotiations, the country's foreign minister said.

'To us as the Botswana government, it does not matter who the two negotiating parties agree on as the head of a new Zimbabwean government,' he said.

'If they agree on Mugabe or Tsvangarai before the August 16 SADC summit, we will receive that leader with both hands.'

He added that 'some people think we hate Mugabe as a person. No, to us it is not the candidature that matters but the political process.'

The SADC summit will be held in South Africa.