NAIROBI, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Sunday that efforts to resolve the political crisis facing Zimbabwe are close to making progress.

    Odinga, who spoke to Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday, said the Southern African nation's ruling party and the opposition are close to agreeing on the framework for talks on the country's political crisis.

    The Kenyan PM who has been critical of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's handling of the presidential elections told BBC television that the framework would be signed this week.

    The framework, a memorandum of understanding setting out the conditions for talks on a possible power-sharing agreement, was expected to be signed by Mugabe and Tsvangirai last week. But Tsvangirai did not sign, insisting that his demands had not yet been met.

    Odinga said Tsvangirai said he was ready to meet President Mugabe if preliminary talks went well. The opposition has refused to recognize Mugabe's re-election last month.

    Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), beat Mugabe in the March presidential election, but not by enough votes to avoid a run-off.

    Mugabe won the second round vote late last month after Tsvangirai pulled out citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters.

    Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years, has been defiant in the face of growing condemnation from Western governments and some African neighbors.

    The Zimbabwean opposition party had identified South Africa's Thabo Mbeki -- the lead negotiator in the talks -- as a key problem, accusing him of being biased in favour of Mugabe, and Tsvangirai had asked for another envoy to join the talks.

    It was later announced that a group of senior diplomats, drawn from the UN, African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), would help Mbeki -- a move welcomed by Tsvangirai.