Zimbabwean authorities have returned opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's travel documents allowing him to travel to South Africa for a key regional summit, a party spokesman said.
The Zimbabwean authorities confiscated Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader's passport earlier today.
"The passport situation has just been resolved. They have their passports now. They will be leaving (for South Africa) on the 6 pm flight. There was no explanation," according to an MDC official and media adviser.
Mr Tsvangirai was invited to attend the weekend Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit, to be hosted by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating power-sharing talks between Zimbabwe's opposition and President Robert Mugabe.
The talks stalled this week after Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai failed to agree on top leadership posts.
The passport incident is likely to raise tensions between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai and embarrass Mr Mbeki, who has dismissed criticism that he is too soft on Zimbabwe's defiant president, saying pressure will only aggravate the country's problems.
Mr Tsvangirai told reporters earlier at the airport he was sure power-sharing talks with Mr Mugabe's government would resume and said he was still optimistic on a deal.
Talks on power-sharing began last month after Mr Mugabe's unopposed re-election in a June vote that was condemned around the world and boycotted by Mr Tsvangirai because of attacks on his supporters. But three days of meetings in Harare failed to reach an overall deal.
Arthur Mutambara, whose break-away MDC faction has 10 seats in parliament, has agreed to power-sharing with Mr Mugabe. However, excluding Mr Tsvangirai would be unlikely to end the crisis.
Reuters