Harare/Johannesburg - Police in Zimbabwe detained a group of Western diplomats for a brief period Tuesday after the ambassadors travelled to rural areas to visit the victims of post-election violence.

The ambassadors of the United States, European Union, Britain and Japan travelled to the towns of Mvurwi and Chiweshe, north of Harare, to gather information on attacks on mainly opposition supporters by supporters of President Robert Mugabe.

On their way back to Harare the group was detained for around an hour by armed police, who demanded they produce a diplomatic note explaining their visit at the nearest police station.

"We are now going to beat you, too," an intelligence official threatened an employee of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), after hearing the group had met with the victims of violence.

Earlier, police had sealed the group briefly inside the grounds of Mvurwi hospital after demanding that a photographer delete his images of battered patients.

"They did not want us to have first-hand information of the level of brutality taking place in the countryside," a spokesman for the US embassy, Paul Engelstad, said.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says 32 of its members have been killed in attacks by pro-Mugabe youth militia and soldiers in revenge for their vote in March 29 presidential elections.

Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader of the last 28 years, placed second in the election behind MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Although Tsvangirai topped the poll, a run-off between the two men has been called for after official results showed the MDC leader falling short of the
50-per-cent-plus-one-ballot threshold needed for an outright victory.

Tsvangirai has demanded the cessation of all violence and the deployment of peacekeepers from neighbouring countries as conditions for his participation in a run-off.

The state-controlled Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has yet to give a date for the second round, while shrugging off MDC calls for it to be held by May 23. dpa)