Hamid Khan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, warned Pakistan could suffer casualties if peacekeeping troops went to Iraq.

"Sending Pakistan army to Iraq will be a national tragedy," said Khan. "The government should not send a single soldier there.

"The people of Iraq are resisting against US occupation and killing US and British soldiers, therefore Pakistan being an Islamic country should refrain from participating in any operation in Iraq," Khan told a joint news conference attended by officials from about a dozen lawyers' organisations.

Musharraf, after summit talks with President George W. Bush, told the ABC television channel in Washington on Wednesday that Pakistan agrees in principle with sending its troops to Iraq.

President Bush asked Pakistan to send troops to Iraq during the meeting in Camp David, he said.

But Musharraf said any deployment should be under the auspices of the United Nations, Organisation of the Islamic Conference or the Gulf Cooperation Council.

"The United States wants that soldiers of Muslim countries should be killed in Iraq. We should not become a party in the dirty occupation," Khan said.

Pakistan's legal community had opposed the invasion of Iraq and the country's secular and Islamic opposition parties also staged massive rallies against the war.

WAR.WIRE