(Adds Zimbabwe foreign affairs, U.N. comments)

By Nelson Banya

HARARE, April 11 (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 southern African 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.

"We believe this meeting really is not necessary because Zimbabwe has made it quite clear that they are going to announce the results," Joey Bimha, Zimbabwe's foreign affairs permanent secretary, told state media as he prepared to travel to Lusaka.

Human rights organisations and the MDC say Mugabe has unleashed a campaign of systematic violence in response to his ruling 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 have called on Mugabe to end his 28-year rule.

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".

A quarter of the population of Zimbabwe have fled to escape hyper-inflation of more than 100,000 percent, chronic shortages of food and fuel and 80 percent unemployment.

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 relatively soft approach to Mugabe, who is still seen as a liberation-era hero to many Africans.

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 Zimbabwean leader.

A United Nations spokeswoman said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was pleased SADC was meeting to try to resolve the crisis peacefully, but added that he was also concerned the situation could deteriorate without prompt action.

Zimbabwean state radio said demands for Mugabe to release the results were misplaced because that was the prerogative of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Meanwhile, 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 African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma, who called for the results to be released.

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.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an alliance of 300 civic groups, warned that there was a growing threat of violence that would lead to mass atrocities in Zimbabwe if African leaders sat on their hands.

"If SADC leaders do not want blood on their hands, they must take action this weekend," coalition chairman Arnold Tsunga said in a statement.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also have expressed concerns about the prospect of post-election violence. (Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Stella Mapenzauswa, Cris Chinaka, Muchena Zigomo and Paul Simao; writing by Barry Moody; editing by Giles Elgood)

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