HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition on Friday called a general strike after officials said President Robert Mugabe would snub a regional summit called to discuss rising fears of bloodshed over delayed election results.
As tension increased over the election deadlock, police accused the opposition Movement for Democratic Change of "spoiling for a fight" and of deploying 350 youth wing members around the country.
The police banned a Sunday rally by the MDC, which called an indefinite general strike starting next Tuesday to push for results from the March 29 election to be released.
State radio said Zimbabwe would be represented by three ministers at the Saturday summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which was expected to pressure Mugabe to release the results.
Human rights organisations and the MDC say Mugabe has unleashed a campaign of systematic violence in response to his ZANU-PF party's first electoral defeat, when it lost control of parliament in the March 29 election.
The MDC says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won a parallel presidential vote, whose results have not been announced, and Mugabe's 28-year rule is over.
Tsvangirai told South African national radio from Botswana: "The situation in Zimbabwe is dire. The ... military has a rollout plan and is already embarking on intimidation, violence against the people."
Tsvangirai said he would be a "prime target".
The MDC accuses Mugabe of delaying the result so that he can intimidate opposition supporters before a runoff vote against Tsvangirai.
STRIKE
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the strike "starts Tuesday and goes on until the results are out".
Mugabe's decision not to attend the summit was a direct snub to Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, the SADC chairman.
Mwanawasa last year described Zimbabwe as a "sinking Titanic" before getting back in line behind the body's softly softly approach to Mugabe.
The absence of Mugabe, 84, from the summit is likely to reduce the chances of any action by SADC, already seen as largely toothless in face of the Zimbabwe crisis and overawed by the former liberation hero.
State radio said demands for Mugabe to release the results were misplaced because that was the prerogative of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Zimbabwean police said all political rallies had been banned because officers were too busy guarding ballot boxes or deployed to prevent post-election violence.
An opposition source said Tsvangirai met President Thabo Mbeki of Zimbabwe's powerful neighbour South Africa on Thursday to discuss the crisis. No details were revealed.
Tsvangirai earlier met ruling African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma, who rivals Mbeki as South Africa's most powerful man.
Zuma, abandoning some of Mbeki's trademark "quiet diplomacy" called for the results to be released.
"We urge all parties to respect the will of the people, regardless of the outcome," Zuma said in a speech on Thursday.
The White House said President George W. Bush had phoned African Union chairman and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete to urge swift release of the results.
Bush made a highly successful visit to Tanzania earlier this year and is close to Kikwete, whose nation is a member of SADC.
Amnesty International said there were widespread incidents of post-election violence in Zimbabwe "suggesting the existence of coordinated retribution against known and suspected opposition supporters".
Human Rights Watch said the Lusaka meeting was SADC's "last real chance" to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, whose economy is in ruins.
A quarter of the population have fled to escape hyper-inflation of more than 100,000 percent, chronic shortages of food and fuel and 80 percent unemployment.
