King Mswati III, who is hosting the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting, had offered to send a private jet to Zimbabwe to fetch Tsvangirai, who has been unable to obtain a new passport.

"I've just spoken with him (Tsvangirai). He told King Mswati III not to send the plane. He's not coming," Roy Bennett, an official with Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told Reuters.

The MDC says the government refused to give Tsvangirai the travel papers needed to attend the SADC security committee meeting in Mbabane, which was called after weeks of fruitless negotiations over the allocation of cabinet positions.

Tsvangirai, who would become prime minister under a power-sharing deal signed last month, was given a document permitting travel to Swaziland but not to South Africa, which separates the two countries, the MDC said.

Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu dismissed the MDC claim as "a gimmick."

"That's not true. He has been given a travel document. South Africa is mediating, how can they deny him passage?"

Earlier Monday, George Charamba, President Robert Mugabe's spokesman, said the regional leaders were trying to convince Tsvangirai to come, and that Swaziland's King Mswati III had sent his personal jet to Harare to pick him up.

Mugabe was taking part in the Swaziland summit. DRC President Joseph Kabila, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has mediated the crisis since 2007, and representatives of Swaziland, Angola and Tanzania were also in attendance.

Arthur Mutambara, who heads a breakaway MDC faction and is also part of the power-sharing deal, said the summit would have no legitimacy without Tsvangirai. He demanded through Mbeki that it be canceled if Tsvangirai was not included.

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

Tsvangirai has been trying for months to replace his passport, which is full. Zimbabwean authorities have issued him short-duration emergency travel documents in what Tsvangirai claims is a campaign to curb his diplomatic travels.

There were signs of failure before the summit opened.

Tsvangirai had said on Sunday that he believed the parties would finalise a power-sharing deal at the meeting.

A September 15 agreement, brokered by Mbeki, may be Zimbabwe's best hope for rescuing an economy where fuel and food are scarce and inflation stands at 231 million percent.