After five days of stormy speeches by more than 60 of the three-week old senate's 100 members, government and opposition parties joined hands to pass the resolution.

"The senate strongly deplores the military attack against Iraq by use of indiscriminate firepower against innocent Iraqi civilians, and demands that the UN Security Council take immediate initiative to stop hostilities and seek a peaceful and diplomatic solution," the resolution said.

The upper house of Pakistan's national parliament also expressed "shock and dismay" over the attack by US, British and allied forces, calling it a "clear violation of the UN Charter."

It expressed solidarity with Iraqi people.

The senate resolution, like Pakistan's government, stopped short of condemning the US-led attacks, underlining the sensitivity of Islamabad's relationship with Washington.

Islamist senator Khurshid Ahmed said the resolution, which used the Urdu-language word for 'condemn' in the Urdu version, took three days to draft.

"Some senators wanted it hard while others soft," he said before reading out the text in the upper house.

The US and Pakistan are close allies in the 18-month old campaign to stamp out the al-Qaeda network, and Washington has rescheduled three billion dollars worth of Pakistani debt and provided Pakistan with more than one billion dollars in loans, grants and cash payments.

The Pakistani government issued a statement deploring the invasion after it began on March 20. It had always spoken against a non-UN-approved attack, but had refrained from publicly stating how it would in the Security Council if a resolution authorising war came up.

Islamist groups have led the largest anti-war demonstrations ever witnessed in Pakistan in recent months, bringing more than 250,000 protestors on to the streets of the north-west city of Peshawar last Sunday.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri sought to counter perceptions pedalled by Islamists that the war amounted to an attack on Islam.

"The wave of protests across the world has proved that it is not a war between Christians and Muslims. Even the Pope... has lent his voice against this war," Kasuri said during the senate debate.

Pakistan's government and people had "reacted with deep anguish and dismay on the current situation in Iraq," he added.

The government meanwhile was preparing to send relief goods and provide shelter, food and medicine to Iraqis.

It would also send a team of doctors to provide medical and humanitarian aid to the sick and wounded in Iraq, Kasuri said.

"Right now our foremost concern is the prevention of humanitarian disaster, the avoidance of civilian casualties and infrastructural damage and any damage to the holy places in Iraq," Kasuri said.

SPACE.WIRE