* Officials hope for result on Sunday

* Mugabe expected to be sworn in on Sunday

* Bush condemns election, calls for arms embargo

* EU says post-vote government will be illegitimate

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE, June 28 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government hopes to announce the result of a one-candidate presidential election on Sunday and swear in President Robert Mugabe for a new term, extending his unbroken 28 years in power.

Electoral officials said late on Saturday the final result of the widely-condemned vote on Friday had been delayed by the wait for final tallies from some rural constituencies.

"Tonight we cannot give the results. I don't want to give a time-frame, but I hope it will be tomorrow," Utoile Silaigwana, the deputy chief elections officer for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, told Reuters.

Earlier, government sources said they expected Mugabe to be sworn in on Sunday in time to attend an African Union (AU) summit in Egypt on Monday, where he says he will confront critics of his decision to go ahead with the vote. The election was widely condemned around the world after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew a week ago, saying almost 90 of his supporters had been killed in government-backed violence.

The government sources said tallies from two-thirds of polling stations showed Mugabe, 84, defeating Tsvangirai by a huge margin.

Tsvangirai's name remained on ballot papers after electoral authorities refused to accept his decision to withdraw last Sunday. He has taken refuge in the Dutch embassy since then.

"The tallies are indicating that despite the wishes of our detractors and the propaganda of our enemies, the voter turnout was very big and that we are going to see a landslide victory," said one government source, who declined to be identified.

"SHAM"

President George W. Bush called the vote a sham and said Washington would impose new sanctions on an illegitimate government. He said he would call on the U.N. to impose an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and a travel ban on its officials.

The European Union said in a statement that Zimbabweans could not vote freely and so "the election lost all legitimacy as well as the administration that has resulted from it".

But foreign ministers preparing for the AU summit indicated it would not support Western calls for sanctions. African countries are believed to have more sway with Mugabe than foreign powers.

Mugabe has presided over once-prosperous Zimbabwe's descent into economic chaos. Hyper-inflation is estimated to have hit at least 2 million percent and food and fuel are scarce.

Witnesses and monitors on Friday reported that in many areas people did not go to the polls.

They added that people in some places had been forced to vote for the president. Tsvangirai said millions stayed away from polling stations despite systematic intimidation.

The opposition leader and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29 but fell short of the majority needed for outright victory.

In contrast to the expected declaration of Friday's result within 48 hours, the outcome of the March 29 presidential poll took five weeks to emerge. Human rights lawyers say that delay made Friday's run-off unconstitutional.

Many Western leaders urged the AU to take action, saying Zimbabwe's turmoil threatened regional security. The MDC said it would lobby the summit leaders.

"The summit has to take a firm position on the transition we seek. It's now a matter of peace and security. We hope the matter gets the urgent attention it deserves. We should not wait for rivers of blood and the complete breakdown of order," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

But ministers attending a meeting to prepare the summit shied away from proposals for stronger international sanctions against Mugabe, saying they were unlikely to work and a power-sharing deal should be encouraged.

AU mediation helped form a power-sharing government in Kenya earlier this year, ending a crisis in which 1,500 died.

"I think we need to engage Zimbabwe. The route of sanctions may not be the helpful one," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula told reporters at the summit venue.

Tsvangirai said earlier this week he would not negotiate with Mugabe if he went ahead with the election.

The MDC's Chamisa criticised South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose quiet diplomacy in Zimbabwe as the designated regional mediator has failed to end the crisis. He is widely accused of being too soft on Mugabe.

"President Mbeki has become part of the problem ... I don't know why he is trying to resurrect a regime that was rejected by the people," Chamisa said.

Gordon Brown, prime minister of former colonial power Britain, said Zimbabwe had reached a new low. "We will work with international partners to find a way to close this sickening chapter that has cost so many lives," he said.

Mugabe blames Western sanctions for economic collapse and the opposition for political violence. (Additional reporting by Nelson Banya and MacDonald Dzirutwe in Harare, Marius Bosch and Paul Simao in Johannesburg, Daniel Wallis and Cynthia Johnston in Sharm el Sheikh and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; writing by Barry Moody; editing by Andrew Roche)

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