(Adds U.N. envoy to visit)

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE, June 11 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's party said on Wednesday it would deploy more war veterans to campaign in opposition areas ahead of a presidential election run-off marred by violence.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai accuses the ruling ZANU-PF of widespread attacks on his supporters but says he is confident of victory in the June 27 poll after beating Mugabe in the first round.

A senior U.N. official will visit Zimbabwe next week to discuss the political situation and forthcoming presidential elections, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Haile Menkerios, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, will visit the southern African country from June 16-20, spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

The U.N. has a permanent presence in Zimbabwe but Menkerios's trip represents the world body's deepest involvement so far in Zimbabwe's recent political crisis.

ZANU-PF officials in the southern Masvingo province, where the ruling party has lost several parliamentary seats in rural districts traditionally considered safe, told Zimbabwe state television they had stepped up their campaign against "troublesome spots where MDC structures had taken root".

"We are setting up units of war veterans to go to those areas to fan out the MDC, to campaign for President Mugabe, to confront and talk to some company managers who are openly supporting these MDC structures," said retired Major Alex Mudavanhu, ZANU-PF chairman for Masvingo.

"We are going to tell people that ZANU-PF is not going to lose this election," he said.

Mugabe's guerrilla fighters from the 1970s independence war and ruling party youth brigades are regularly used as political shock troops against the opposition and have recently been threatening to launch another bush war if Mugabe loses.

Mugabe's support has been eroded by the economic collapse of the once prosperous country, which he has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. On Wednesday, Mugabe's government announced tax cuts for the low paid.

Tsvangirai says Zimbabweans cannot afford Mugabe's rule any further. He accused ZANU-PF activists on Tuesday of killing 66 opposition supporters to try to intimidate voters.

Mugabe's party denies waging war on its foes and says "MDC thugs" have killed a number of ZANU-PF activists, including war veterans.

SATELLITE DISHES

On Wednesday, the MDC said the government had launched a campaign forcing Zimbabweans to pull down home satellite dishes, to prevent them getting foreign television stations and limiting their viewing to the state broadcaster.

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu rejected the charge.

"What I heard was that a lunatic war veteran was going around telling people to remove their satellite dishes and we stopped him because the government is committed to free flow of information," Ndlovu told Reuters.

Tsvangirai, detained twice last week during campaigning, unveiled a 75-seater bus he said would help to win votes.

"We are going to be in every town, in every village to meet the people of Zimbabwe," the MDC leader told supporters.

The bus bore the words: "A new President ready to deliver a new Zimbabwe. Morgan is the one."

At a campaign rally later on Wednesday the 84-year-old Mugabe dismissed speculation he might seek asylum.

"You heard that I might go to Malaysia. No," Mugabe told thousands of residents in a township east of Harare in remarks broadcast on state television.

"Running away from my land, the land from where I was born and from where I grew up until now and then decide to go to another country. There is only one country close to my heart. That is Zimbabwe," he said.

Zimbabweans hope the election will start recovery from economic ruin that has brought 165,000 percent inflation, 80 percent unemployment and chronic food and fuel shortages, and has sent millions fleeing to neighbouring countries. (Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Nelson Banya; Wendell Roelf in Cape Town; editing by Paul Simao and Keith Weir)

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