"This is a crusade against Islam and we have accepted this challenge of US President George W. Bush," the chief of six-party Islamic alliance of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Shah Ahmed Noorani, said.

Speaking at a reception here late Saturday, Noorani said the MMA will go ahead with its plan to stage its massive rally dubbed as a "million march" in Hyderabad, 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) northeast of Karachi on Monday.

The rally which is expected to draw a huge crowd will be addressed by heads of MMA components, he added.

The MMA leader insisted that the US campaign was aimed at weakening the Muslim world. Pakistan can be the target, may be not next, but after next, he said.

"Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, but it was attacked. We have nuclear bombs, long range and short range missiles so we can be the target," Noorani said.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell in an interview with Pakistan televison on Thursday said the United States had no hit list after Iraq, but it would "firmly" pursue the goal of no country supporting terrorism or developing weapons of mass destruction.

"We all must do everything that we can to end terrorism and also do something about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Powell told the state broadcaster.

The MMA has organised big protest rallies in the major cities of Pakistan since the US attack on Iraq. Tens of thousands of people attended rallies it held in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar to condemn the US led attack last month.

The alliance emerged as the major political force in the general elections held in October last year.

The MMA, a major opposition group in the federal parliament, has formed its own government in deeply religious North West Frontier Province, and shares power in southwestern Balichistan province, both bordering Afghanistan.

SPACE.WIRE