Zimbabwe’s long-time President Robert Mugabe has been holding direct talks with the army over his future.
Pictures emerged of the 93-year-old meeting the army chief and two envoys from South Africa at his official residence in Harare.
The army put Mr Mugabe under house arrest on Wednesday after moving in to take control.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says Mr Mugabe must resign but sources suggest the president is resistant.
The crisis stems from a power struggle in recent months over who might succeed him – his wife Grace Mugabe or former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Last week, Mr Mugabe came down in favour of his wife, sacking Mr Mnangagwa and provoking the ire of the army chiefs.
Photos in the Zimbabwe Herald showed Mr Mugabe meeting army chief Gen Constantino Chiwenga and the two South African envoys from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) at State House in Harare.
Alongside them was Father Fidelis Mukonori, a Roman Catholic priest known to Mr Mugabe for years, who has been brought in to mediate.
Sources close to the talks say Mr Mugabe – who has been in control of Zimbabwe since it threw off white minority rule in 1980 – is refusing to stand down voluntarily before next year’s planned elections.
“He is refusing to step down. I think he is trying to buy time,” one source close to the army leadership told the AFP news agency.
Zanu-PF officials had earlier suggested Mr Mugabe could remain nominally in power until the party congress in December, when Mr Mnangagwa would be formally installed as party and national leader.
