"We should revive the spirit of jihad (holy war) to defend Iraqi Muslims against US aggression," the prayer leader of Islamabad's main Red Mosque, Mohammad Abdul Aziz, told the gathering of about 2,000 worshippers.

"Muslims do not rely on material and human resources, they always fight against their numerically superior enemy," he said.

"It gives a peculiar taste and spiritual joy when you chant Allah-o-Akbar (God is great) as enemy jets rain bombs during the war," said Aziz, who said he had witnessed Afghan mujahedin fighting against the 1979-89 Soviet occupation.

He also called for a boycott of US and British products.

"If we cannot participate in the war, we can join another jihad of boycotting all the American consumer goods."

Calls to boycott US and British products were echoed in mosques across the country as Muslims observed a day of protest called by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a powerful religious bloc of six Islamic political parties which holds 18 percent of seats in the lower house of federal parliament.

Prayer leaders also slammed the government's "reluctance" to categorically condemn the war and declare open support for Iraq.

"Pakistan should shut British and American embassies and cut diplomatic ties with the war mongers," Qari Fayyazur Rehman told a gathering of more than 700 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

"Pakistan should expel the US troops from its bases and FBI (Federal Bureau of Intelligence) agents," he said.

US-led forces have been using airbases in Pakistan to carry out operations in neighbouring Afghanistan against Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants.

"Pakistan is pursuing a vague policy on Iraq, which was condemnable," MMA leader Aslam Saleemi told a gathering of some 1,000 people in the eastern city of Lahore.

"Pakistan should send weapons and troops to defend Iraq," Saleemi said.

Islamabad is a key Washington ally in the 18-month US-led war on terrorism but is opposed to the war in Iraq.

Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali expressed concern over the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and offered aid.

"The military action in Iraq has compounded the problems of the already suffering Iraqi people who have lived under sanctions for over a decade," he said in a statement.

"While the primary responsibility for addressing the immediate and long term needs of the Iraqi people rests with the parties involved in the military conflict, the government of Pakistan, in an expression of solidarity with the people of Iraq, intends to provide assistance for the Iraqi people as soon as possible."

He said Pakistan would send food, tents, blankets and medical supplies.

"Pakistan from the very beginning was against war and tried its best to avert it," Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told reporters after students from Islamabad schools and colleges presented him with an anti-war memorandum.

He said the "government, the opposition and the people of Pakistan all stand united with these children demanding an early end to the war."

In the mountainous northern region thousands of people staged anti-war rallies in Gilgit, Chilas, Ghizer and Skardu districts. Witnesses said the marchers chanted anti-US slogans describing US attacks as "international terrorism."

As anti-war rallies continued across Pakistan about 100 people staged a demonstration outside the parliament building, where the senate (upper house) was discussing the Iraq situation. They released doves and lit torches as symbols of peace.

WAR.WIRE