By Muchena Zigomo

MBABANE, Oct 20 (Reuters) - An emergency regional summit aimed at ending a deadlock in the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe has been postponed until Oct. 27 after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai refused to attend.

The delay, announced by the 15-nation SADC regional body in a statement in Swaziland, was a blow to hopes that Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe would be able to agree this week on the allocation of cabinet positions in the new government.

Disagreement over control of key ministries has led to weeks of fruitless negotiations between the two sides, raising fears that a Sept. 15 power-sharing deal could collapse and Zimbabwe's economy sink deeper into crisis.

The impasse prompted the SADC (Southern African Development Community) to convene the summit this week in Swaziland.

"(MDC) President Tsvangirai was supposed to attend, but due to some technical problems he could not attend," Swaziland King Mswati III told a news conference in Mbabane on Monday. "That is why the meeting is being postponed."

It will now take place in Harare.

Tsvangirai, who would become prime minister under the power-sharing deal, snubbed the summit after Zimbabwe's government failed to issue him with a new passport. He was instead provided with a temporary travel document for Swaziland.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader is unable to travel on his old passport because all the pages are full. He would not budge on his demand even after the Swazi king offered to send a private jet to Zimbabwe to fetch him.

Arthur Mutambara, who heads a breakaway MDC faction and is also part of the power-sharing deal, had said earlier that the summit would have no legitimacy without Tsvangirai and demanded it be cancelled.

"In the context of the agreement what sort of goodwill is that?," asked Mutambara in a statement.

Mugabe, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has mediated the crisis since 2007, and senior leaders of South Africa, Swaziland, Angola and Tanzania also were scheduled to attend the meeting.

SADC FRUSTRATION

Tsvangirai has accused Mugabe's ZANU-PF, which lost a parliamentary election in March, of trying to grab the most important ministries in a bid to relegate the MDC to the role of junior partner in the government.

The cabinet talks, which are taking place under SADC mediation, are seen as critical to solving Zimbabwe's economic crisis. The country's inflation rate has hit 231 million percent and it suffers widespread shortages of food, fuel and currency.

But there were signs of impending failure before the meeting opened.

In a statement Tsvangirai's MDC said recent developments made it "incredibly difficult" to have confidence in the mediation process, which is being carried out by Mbeki under a SADC mandate.

ZANU-PF's chief negotiator, Patrick Chinamasa, told a state-run newspaper that Mugabe's party would not bow to pressure from the SADC, which has become increasingly frustrated by Zimbabwe's political turmoil.

Millions of Zimbabweans have fled the country in search of food and work in neighbouring nations, especially South Africa.

Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a presidential election on March 29 but with too few votes to avoid a June run-off, which was won by Mugabe unopposed after Tsvangirai pulled out, saying his supporters had been subjected to violence and intimidation. (Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka and Nelson Banya in Harare and Paul Simao in Johannesburg; Writing by Paul Simao and Marius Bosch; Editing by Richard Williams)

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