The head of Islamic party PAS called on voters to follow the lead of the Spanish electorate and topple the government in upcoming polls.

"If Spanish voters can change their government, why can't we? God willing we will form the next government," PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang told cheering supporters, who punched their fists into the air and cried "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).

The Spanish people threw out their conservative government because it supported the United States-led war on Iraq and had contributed ground troops to the conflict, Abdul Hadi said during a tour in the captial Kuala Lumpur ahead of the March 21 elections.

Socialists swept to power on Sunday in Spain's general elections, which were overshadowed by terrorist train bombings in Madrid that killed at least 200 people.

Abdul Hadi said there were many reasons to topple the governing Barisan Nasional, which has been in power in Malaysia since 1957, but voters were afraid of change.

Some 10.3 million Malaysians head for the polls on Sunday, with the role of Islam in government a major issue and PAS presenting the biggest challenge to the ruling party.

PAS controls two of the country's 13 states and wants to turn this rapidly-developing multi-racial nation into a theocratic state complete with strict Shariah laws including amputation and stoning to death.

The Barisan Nasional coalition, led by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, proposes a "progressive and modern" form of Islamic government and is expected to retain power easily.

Harder anti-US line

However, the vote is being closely watched for any signs of growing Islamic fundamentalism in Malaysia because it borders Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-populated nation, where 202 people were killed in a terrorist bombing in Bali in October 2002.

The Bali attack was carried out by Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a regional group linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, which has purportedly claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings.

Malaysia is holding some 90 alleged Islamic militants in detention without trial, many of them alleged JI members, and was hailed by the US as an important ally in the campaign against terrorism before it took a strong stance against the war in Iraq. PAS takes an even harder line against Washington.

Muslim Malays make up some 60 percent of Malaysia's population of 25 million, which includes large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, who are vital to the ruling coalition's hold on power as they tend to shun the fundamentalism of PAS.

Abdul Hadi said, however, that Chinese and Indian voters should not fear PAS's policies.

"We will be fair to all. No one will be discriminated against," he said. - AFP