(Updates Wade comments after final rally)

By Pascal Fletcher and Diadie Ba

DAKAR, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade asked Senegal's voters on Friday to re-elect him for a second term and warned his opponents he would not tolerate any violent challenge against the poll outcome.

The octogenarian leader made the warning in comments to foreign reporters after wrapping up his campaign with a big rally, at which he promised to create thousands of jobs and launch major public works if he was re-elected.

Several thousand dancing, singing supporters chanted "The man is strong" and "First Round, First Round", a reference to Wade's declared aim to win more than 50 percent of the votes on Sunday, which would avoid the need for a second round run-off.

"In my view, there will be no second round. All the surveys we have carried out give me above 50 percent," Wade told reporters at his palace after the rally. The publication of opinion polls has been forbidden during campaigning.

Wade dismissed public warnings from some of the 14 challengers running against him that they would contest any first round victory by him as fraudulent.

"When the results come out, if there's any unrest, I'll make sure order and security are respected. Anyway, they (his opponents) wouldn't dare," he said.

Earlier, Wade promised to work to stop desperate young Senegalese migrants trying to leave for Europe. He said he would keep them at home through ambitious job-creating projects to build highways, five-star hotels, railways, ports and airports.

"In two years, the majority of Senegalese will find jobs," the president, wearing an embroidered blue robe and a white cap and scarf, told the rally.

"Our young people, instead of trying to go to Spain or France, will stay here," he said.

He was flanked by his ministers and leaders of the Islamic Mouride brotherhood who are economically and socially influential in predominantly Muslim Senegal.

"BARCELONA OR DEATH"

Wade, flagbearer of the liberal Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), is widely expected to finish first in Sunday's ballot. But some analysts question whether he can carry the election in the first round.

The president, elected in 2000 when he broke the rival Socialist Party's 40-year grip on power, argues he has boosted the former French colony's image as a stable democracy in a troubled region notorious for wars and coups.

But his opponents cite persistent rural poverty, deficiencies in infrastructure and services, high unemployment, rising prices and the exodus of young Senegalese leaving for Europe as examples of a failure to deliver on promises.

Wade recited a list of further promises on Friday.

"Dakar will be one of the most beautiful capitals of our continent," he said. A spate of chronic power cuts, traffic chaos caused by major construction projects, and a failing refuse collection system that leaves piles of rubbish around the city have fuelled popular discontent over the last year.

The drama of thousands of young Senegalese arriving parched and exhausted in the Spanish Canary Islands after long voyages in open boats has focused international attention on Senegal.

Complaining they face unemployment and low salaries at home, the young Africans say they prefer to risk their lives in clandestine migration voyages to seek a better life in Europe.

"Barca (Barcelona) or Barzakh (death in the local Wolof language)" is their motto. Last year, several thousand are thought to have drowned or died of hunger, thirst or exposure.

AlertNet news is provided by