Morgan Tsvangirai, who returned two weeks ago to face President Robert Mugabe in the June 27 ballot, was taken with about 14 others from his Movement for Democratic Change to a police station in Lupane, north of Bulawayo, his spokesman said.

Spokesman George Sibotshiwe was quoted in a party statement as saying Tsvangirai was released after being charged with a public order offence that he described as "a spurious charge of attracting a large number of people.''

Tsvangirai had to sign an official police caution before he was let go and one of his security vehicles was seized, the statement said.

"This is yet another shameless and desperate act of this illegitimate regime to try and subvert the will of the people of Zimbabwe,'' the Movement for Democratic Change said.

Tsvangirai's detention had been condemned by the United States, Britain, Germany and the human rights group Amnesty International.

Among those with Tsvangirai were the party's vice president, Thokozane Kupe, and chairman, Lovemore Moyo. They were stopped by police at a roadblock while campaigning in towns north of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, according to Tsvangirai's spokesman.

Tsvangirai, 56, insists he won the first round of the election outright and says official results released May 2 showing a runoff was needed were fraudulent.

"Mugabe is determined to turn the whole country into a war zone in order to subvert the will of the people and steal the June 27 election by any means possible,'' Tsvangirai said in Bulawayo earlier Wednesday.

The opposition leader left Zimbabwe after the March 29 vote and delayed his return after his party said he was the target of a military assassination plot.

Tsvangirai has survived at least three assassination attempts. In 1997, assailants tried to throw him from a 10th floor window.

Last year, he was hospitalised after a brutal assault by police at a prayer rally. Images seen around the world of his bruised and swollen face have come to symbolize the plight of dissenters in Zimbabwe.

Independent human rights groups say opposition supporters have been beaten and killed by government and ruling party thugs to ensure the 84-year-old Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, wins the second round. He trailed Tsvangirai in the first round.

Mugabe was lauded early in his rule for campaigning for racial reconciliation and building the economy. But in recent years, he has been accused of holding onto power through fraud and intimidation, and trampling on political and human rights.

Zimbabwe's collapsing economy was a major concern of voters during the first round of voting. People are going hungry in what was once the region's breadbasket, with the world's highest inflation rate putting staples out of reach.

Zimbabwe's economic decline has been blamed on the collapse of the key agriculture sector after the seizures -- often violent and at Mugabe's orders -- of farmland from whites. Mugabe claimed the seizures begun in 2002 were to benefit poor blacks, but many of the farms went to his loyalists.

On Tuesday, Mugabe addressed world leaders at a U.N. summit in Rome on the global food crisis against a backdrop of sharp criticism over his participation and defended his policy of seizing lands from whites. Some delegations, including those of the United States, Britain and the Netherlands, said they wouldn't talk to Mugabe at the summit. - AP
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