In line were hundreds of Zimbabweans seeking asylum - a measure of how fear of Robert Mugabe and gloom over the nation's economic meltdown have not abated.

Some said they were wary that the longtime Zimbabwean president was still in a position to unleash violence on his enemies. Others said that while they found hope in the agreement signed Monday, they did not expect their country's economic crisis to be quickly resolved.

Under the pact, Mugabe remains president and head of government, chairing the Cabinet. Tsvangirai is prime minister and head of a new Council of Ministers responsible for forming government policies.

Observers worry that rather than resolution, the agreement heralds government paralysis.

South African immigration officials say that when they first set up a temporary office for asylum seekers at a fairgrounds near the border two months ago, only about 400 people a day sought help. That has grown to more than 1,000 a day, about the number gathered Tuesday.

Some aid groups estimate that in recent weeks as many as 6,000 Zimbabweans have been crossing into South Africa every day. Many go back within a few days carrying groceries and other essentials that are increasingly scarce at home. But there has also been a spike in those seeking refugee status.

The Musina offices - a row of trailers just inside the fairground gates -can handle only about 400 applicants a day.

It took only an hour after the offices opened at 7:30 Tuesday for the first 400 in line, some of whom had been waiting all night, to get a chance to fill out forms. The hundreds left sprinted across the street to a vacant lot and jostled for position before a clerk taking names.

Those on his list, who would be given priority the next day, settled down to wait in a lot littered with ash left over from the previous night's fires and lengths of cardboard used as mattresses. Children gathered around a blackened paint pot balanced over a fire to await a breakfast of corn meal, porridge and milk.

While most were men, more and more women and children were coming, said Alexis Moens, an official with Medecins Sans Frontieres, which was providing medical care for Zimbabweans and other immigrants in this border town.

"My feeling is that now more women and children are coming than before (because) the situation is getting a bit more desperate," Moens said.

Robin Mucheana reached South Africa on Saturday and had been in line at the fairgrounds every morning since.

Mucheana said he has been growing oranges, guavas, avocados and vegetables on a small farm in Chitungwiza, south of Harare, for 15 years. This year, with official inflation the highest in the world at 11 million percent, he could not afford seedlings, seeds or fertilizer. He and his wife resorted to selling vegetables on the streets, but were barely making enough each day to feed themselves and their three children.

"In the morning, you wake up with bread selling at 8 trillion (Zimbabwe dollars), at 5 in the evening you get it at 10 trillion. And tomorrow, again, new prices," he said. "The hunger is the main issue. Some people are even dying."

The International Red Cross estimates more than 2 million people are hungry in Zimbabwe, and that the number is going to rise to 5 million, about half the country's population, by the end of the year.

High prices aren't the only reason Zimbabweans are struggling. The last harvest was poor, and Mugabe's government restricted the work of aid agencies in June, accusing them of siding with the opposition before a presidential runoff. The ban was lifted last month, but aid agencies say it takes time to gear up.

"People are eating berries, people are eating roots, people are eating anything they can get their hands on," said James McGee, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe. "We're seeing it all over the country."

McGee added the political violence that followed elections in March and sent many Zimbabweans fleeing across the border has subsided, but not completely disappeared. He said there were signs of tension in areas where the deaths of parliamentary candidates or other issues meant new votes would have to be held.

Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in March presidential elections and his party also out-polled Mugabe's in parliamentary voting. But Tsvangirai did not win the simple majority needed to avoid a runoff. An onslaught of state-sponsored violence forced Tsvangirai to withdraw  from the second election, and Mugabe was declared the winner in a vote widely denounced as a sham.

More than 100 Tsvangirai supporters were killed, thousands were beaten, and tens of thousands were forced from their homes.

Mucheana, the farmer hoping for refugee status, said he found reason for "plenty of hope" in Monday's agreement because it brought the opposition into government. But he said he did not expect change to come quickly.

Richard Zuza, a pastor back in Harare, said the agreement was a start. But he was also in line for asylum Tuesday, as he had been for the last four days. He was fearful of returning because he said new elections were being held in his area and he had been counseling his congregation not to vote for Mugabe's party.

He said he wanted more details of the agreement, such as whether Tsvangirai's party or Mugabe's would get the ministries overseeing police and the army, two institutions accused of fomenting violence against Mugabe's opponents.

"If they don't give Mr. Tsvangirai those soldiers, I don't think anything can change," he said. "Mugabe must resign. Then everything will be all right."