(releads with Mugabe comments)

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE, March 15 (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe on Thursday told Western countries to "go hang" after international outrage over charges his government assaulted the main opposition leader in police detention.

Opposition officials say police tortured Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and several opposition and civic groups' leaders on Sunday when they tried to attend a prayer vigil in a Harare township.

But the government has suggested Tsvangirai and his group resisted arrest and accused them of stepping up violence in a bid to overthrow Mugabe's government.

"It's the West as usual ... when they criticise the government trying to prevent violence and punish the perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that they can go hang," Mugabe said after a meeting with Tanzanian leader Jikaya Kikwete.

"This is the West ... Europe, which has always supported the opposition here and the opposition elsewhere again showing its true colours. We do not accept their criticism at all," Mugabe said.

The veteran leader, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 brands the MDC a puppet of Western governments he accuses of funding the opposition to effect regime change.

"Here are groups of persons who went out of their way to effect a campaign of violence and we hear no criticism, not at all of their actions of violence," Mugabe said when asked to respond to criticism of his government.

The United States is among those that have sharply condemned the arrests, threatening to tighten sanctions on Mugabe and other top officials.

Australia has demanded that African countries, who have been roundly criticised for turning a blind eye to Mugabe's controversial rule, support tougher action against Zimbabwe.

Kikwete's visit was the first concrete diplomatic initiative following this week's clashes. Tanzania is one of a "troika" of countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) charged with seeking to resolve Zimbabwe's long-running political and economic crisis.

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