"Russian Muslims have real means of pressure against the United States. We will create a fund for the purchase of weapons and supplies for the Iraqi people," Talgut Tadzhuddin, titular head of the Muslims in European Russia, said as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

A spokesman for Tadzhuddin told AFP the jihad proposal "will be discussed by a special congress" of the Muslims of Russia in Moscow on Saturday.

Interfax earlier reported that Tazhuddin had issued a call for jihad in response to the US-led attack on Iraq launched on March 20 to eliminate its alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

However, a spokesman for Ravil Gainutdin, the spiritual leader of Russia's 20 million Muslims, rejected the proposal, telling AFP that while "we all want a rapid end to the war, a declaration of jihad is completely pointless and (Tadzhuddin) has no right to make it.

Russia's Muslim community is divided into two strands, the first based in the central republic of Bashkortostan and following Tadzhuddin, the larger second stand based in Moscow and following Gainutdin.

Gainutdin, who heads the all-Russian Council of Muftis, is regarded by the Kremlin as the country's senior Muslim cleric.

Tadzhuddin, who headed a delegation of Muslim clerics who visited Baghdad in the days just before the US-led attack on Iraq, noted that his was only the second declaration of a holy war in modern Russian history, the first having been declared in 1941 at the time of the German invasion of Russia.

He said the effects of the holy war would become apparent within two or three days, but did not elaborate.

Damir Khazrat Gizatulin, Gainutdin's deputy, stressed that "only the Council of Muftis is empowered to take a decision concerning a jihad" and that Tadzhuddin's declaration was issued "on his own initiative."

Tadzhuddin "is only the leader of Bashkortostan" and has "exaggerated his rights," Gizatulin said, noting that only 62 of Russia's 3,600 Muslim communities fall under Tadzhuddin's jurisdiction while the Council of Muftis controls most of the rest.

Russian Muslims should adopt humanitarian ideals "and send food and medicines to Iraq," Gizatulin said.

Gainutdin is unlikely to attend the special congress at Moscow on Saturday, organisers said.

A justice ministry official warned that attempts by Russian Muslims to back Iraq militarily could face legal action.

"Attempts to recruit mercenaries or buy weapons and ship them to Iraq would be subject to a criminal investigation," the official, Sergei Nikulin, told Interfax.

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