A second day of talks between Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition were set to go ahead in South Africa Friday as the parties lay the ground for substantive negotiations on the country's crisis.

Nqobizitha Mlilo, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's chief spokesman in South Africa, said the two sides would continue to discuss conditions needed before fully-fledged negotiations can go ahead.

"We are meeting them (the ruling ZANU-PF party) face-to-face. We are not afraid of them," Mlilo told AFP.

Mugabe was re-elected last month in a second round, boycotted by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai after a wave of deadly attacks on his supporters.