Harare — PRESSURE is mounting on President Robert Mugabe to cease immediately the relentless assault on dissenting voices ahead of this month's Presidential run-off election.

Mugabe has been called upon to stop human rights abuses and allow United Nations observers into the country to monitor the run-off.

MDC campaign rallies for the 27 June election have been banned by the police, virtually shutting the door on a free and fair election.

The MDC has said at least 65 of its supporters have been murdered since the 29 March elections, while more than 25 000, among them 10 000 children, have been displaced.

Opposition supporters are being denied food while aid agencies have been banned in what observers say is an attempt by Mugabe to use food assistance as bait for votes.

Last week's detention and harassment of diplomats from the United States and Britain and the assault of a driver in Bindura by police and Zanu PF militia have given rise to condemnation from the international community.

Both the US and British governments are furious over the incident in which five US and two British diplomats were detained for several hours at a police roadblock. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the incident "outrageous behaviour".

Already Washington has raised the issue at the UN Security Council and protested strongly to the government, saying the incident underlined the harassment ordinary Zimbabweans faced every day.

But Zanu PF spokesperson for elections Patrick Chinamasa said the government was "not shaken" by the uproar because there was no basis for the US to appeal to the UN as Zimbabwe was the "aggrieved" party.

"Zimbabwe is actually the victim and complainant in an issue of extreme provocation by the US and UK diplomatic officers who have appointed themselves campaign managers for the opposition," he said.

Chinamasa alleged the diplomats were seen distributing opposition campaign material for MDC-Tsvangirai in Bindura and refused to heed to police orders to stop at a roadblock.

US President George W Bush has called on international bodies to quickly send monitors and observers to Zimbabwe.

"We urge the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union, the United Nations, and other international organisations to blanket the country with election and human rights monitors immediately," said Bush in a statement.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the detention of diplomats "mirrors the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans", who suffer intimidation and brutality of Mugabe's regime on a daily basis.

"It's a window into lives that in some cases are marked by brutal intimidation, by torture and, in fifty three cases that have been documented over the last few weeks, by death," he said.

He said the world continued to "watch" the situation in Zimbabwe and stressed need for SADC countries and international bodies to monitor the elections.

"And it's very important that the international community plays its role by ensuring that for the election on 27 June there are international monitors, properly accredited, who are able to ensure that despite the ravages in Zimbabwe at the moment ... there is an election that allows the democratic will of the Zimbabwean people to be heard loud and to be heard clear," Miliband said.

On Friday, Tsvangirai was detained by the police for the second time in a week, blocking him from a campaign rally in Matabeleland.

The MDC leader beat Mugabe in the March election but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a second ballot.

South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, the SADC mediator on the Zimbabwe crisis, last week quickly intervene by contacting the government upon hearing Tsvangirai's detention, to ascertain the circumstances of the arrest.

On the arrest of Tsvangirai in Matabeleland, Chinamasa said the MDC leader must abide by the country's laws.

"He cannot travel in unregistered vehicles carrying youths with banned weapons. The police have an obligation to stamp out violence," said Chinamasa, who accused MDC of political violence.

Bush has expressed concern over Mugabe's politicisation of food, after a ban on all non-governmental organisations from operating in the country, alleging they were campaigning for MDC.

"We also are concerned by reports that misguided government policies are projected to result in one of the worst crop harvests in Zimbabwean history," said Bush

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, expressed concern over the food aid ban in a country where over four million people are surviving on food handouts

"This ban must be lifted right away," Michel said.

"I am deeply distressed to think that hundreds of thousands of people who depend on aid from the European Commission and others for their very survival now face an even more uncertain future. It is essential that relief workers be given unrestricted and secure access so they can provide assistance to the most vulnerable."