(Adds government critic saying newspapers burnt, Mugabe meets S.A. minister)

By Nelson Banya

HARARE, May 26 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will respect the will of voters if they end his 28-year rule in a run-off election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Monday.

Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the March 29 presidential poll but failed to win an absolute majority. His Movement for Democractic Change (MDC), which has accused the government of cheating in past elections, fears it will rig the results of the June 27 run-off.

"If the president loses, he will be the first one to go on national television to acknowledge the result to the people," Emmerson Mnangagwa, a government minister and Mugabe's chief election agent, told the Herald.

But he added that Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party were confident they would win the second round of voting.

The 84-year-old Zimbabwean ruler kicked off his re-election campaign on Sunday, accusing the United States of political interference in Zimbabwe's affairs and the MDC of training youths to engage in political violence.

He threatened to kick out U.S. ambassador James McGee and said the U.S. State Department's top Africa envoy had behaved like a prostitute for suggesting Tsvangirai won the first round.

The MDC won control of parliament in a parallel election.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, accuses the U.S. and Britain of backing the MDC to punish him for seizing thousands of white-owned farms since 2000.

He also says Western sabotage is to blame for Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, shown in 165,000 percent inflation, unemployment of 80 percent and chronic food and fuel shortages.

MILLIONS FLEE

Some 3.5 million people have fled to South Africa and other countries to escape poverty and malnutrition.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating in the Zimbabwe crisis, and on Monday Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, a member of his team, held talks with Mugabe in Harare. The meeting was closed to the media.

The London-based editor of The Zimbabwean, a newspaper critical of Mugabe's government, said eight gunmen intercepted a truck transporting its weekend edition on Sunday from South Africa, where it is published, and burnt 60,000 copies.

Editor Wilf Mbanga said in a statement the gunmen beat the South African driver of the truck and his Zimbabwean companion with rifle butts and abandoned then in the bush near the southern city of Masvingo.

Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have signalled they intend to pursue a grassroots campaign focused on voter canvassing and small village meetings ahead of the run-off, eschewing the mass rallies they have favoured since 1980.

The MDC draws much of its backing from the capital Harare and other cities. Mugabe, whose popularity has plunged with the economic collapse, has to offset that if he is to win.

The Zimbabwean ruler is still admired by many of his own citizens and others in Africa for leading the battle to end British colonial rule, and a grassroots campaign may tap into that legacy.

Tsvangirai also launched his campaign after returning to Zimbabwe on Saturday for the first time since early April, repeating his demand that the government end the political violence that has engulfed the nation since the March polls.

The MDC says dozens of its supporters have been killed or beaten in an intimidation campaign orchestrated by ZANU-PF. The ruling party says the MDC is responsible for the bloodshed. (Editing by Richard Meares)

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