By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE, April 12 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader on Thursday said he would negotiate with President Robert Mugabe's ruling party to try to end a crisis he says has seen 600 political activists abducted and tortured this year.

In a press conference in Harare, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he was confident the crisis that erupted after the government's violent crackdown on the opposition last month could be sorted out in direct talks.

"This crisis is going to be resolved through negotiation, and (the ruling) ZANU-PF and MDC will sit down and negotiate," said Tsvangirai, who was among dozens of anti-Mugabe activists who were arrested at an aborted March 11 prayer rally in Harare.

Reports that the MDC leader and his colleagues had been savagely beaten prompted sharp international protests.

The MDC repeatedly has said that security agents and police were harassing, beating and even murdering its members.

On Thursday Tsvangirai accused state security agents of abducting and torturing 600 activists in the past three months.

He said 150 MDC activists and leaders had suffered life-threatening injuries since Feb. 16.

"This programme, which is directed, sanctioned and supervised by Robert Mugabe himself, is being carried out by mixed hit squads, comprising the police, CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) and militias," Tsvangirai said.

"Indeed ... over 600 people have been abducted and tortured," Tsvangirai added.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Mugabe's government has said the MDC has launched a violent campaign, including petrol bombing police stations and attacking ruling party officials, to topple the 83-year-old ruler. Tsvangirai rejected those charges on Thursday.

The burly former trade unionist added that the MDC was committed to a Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) initiative to have South African President Thabo Mbeki mediate between the party and Mugabe's government.

Although similar initiatives have failed in the past, Tsvangirai said he was optimistic Mbeki would have more success this time because of the backing from SADC, which held a special summit last month to discuss the Zimbabwe crisis.

SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao arrived in the country on Wednesday to asses Zimbabwe's economic problems after the regional bloc said it could assist Mugabe's government.

Tsvangirai, however, said Zimbabwe's economic crisis, highlighted by the world's highest inflation rate, soaring poverty and chronic shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency, could add further pressure on Mugabe to negotiate.

Critics say Mugabe's policies, particularly his seizure of thousands of white farms for redistribution to landless blacks, are to blame for the economic decline.

Implementation of the land redistribution programme has coincided with a sharp drop in agricultural production, forcing Zimbabwe to rely on imports of the staple maize to feed its people.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, says the economy is being sabotaged by Western powers opposed to his land policy.

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