Leaders of opposition Islamic party PAS are meeting this week to rebrand themselves and woo back voters, but analysts say they face a tough task in this multicultural nation.

Some 1,000 party delegates have gathered in the Muslim heartland of Kelantan for five days of debate culminating in elections Sunday that could usher in a new generation of leaders.

PAS leaders have famously said that a vote for the party ensures a place in heaven, but the rhetoric did not help in last year's general elections when it suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the ruling coalition which promotes a moderate version of Islam.

During this week's annual gathering, delegates will have a chance to elect a new leadership from the ranks of young professional moderates, or maintain the old order of elderly clerics with fundamentalist ideas.

"The focus of this gathering is to identify changes that are needed for the party. It is not just about a leadership challenge by the young. It is about the image of PAS. We need to rebrand the party," said central committee member Mahfuz Omar.

"It is about how people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, view PAS. We must prepare to make a comeback in the next polls, maybe in 2008," he told AFP .

Mahfuz, a progressive former lawmaker and youth wing chief, is gunning for one of the three vice-president posts as are woman candidate Siti Mariah Mahmud, a medical doctor, and several others.

Muslim Malays make up some 60 percent of Malaysia's 25 million population, with Chinese accounting for 25 percent and Indians 7.5 percent.

A period of hallucination

At the general elections, PAS's aim of turning multicultural Malaysia into a theocratic state under Islamic rule was widely rejected and it received a thumping from the coalition led by Umno.

Under the leadership of Abdul Hadi Awang, PAS lost power in the neighbouring state of Terengganu but kept its hold on Kelantan with a slim majority. Its presence in parliament dipped to five seats from 27.

Shamsul Amir Baharuddin, sociology lecturer at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, told AFP that PAS underwent "a period of hallucination after it won big in the 1999 elections."

PAS failed to realise it won by default only because voters were angry with Umno over the sacking of ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, he said.

"The PAS leaders silenced all criticism after they won in 1999. But after the 2004 defeat young Turks in the party have now emerged to question the senior leaders, especially the clerics," he said.

Shamsul said PAS failed to take into account the fact that they needed to court the Chinese and Indian vote to score a nationwide win. "They must wake up and accept that they are not operating in Afghanistan's mountains," he said.

PAS would find it difficult to gain any ground until it addressed its failure to bring economic development to Kelantan and its inability to attract non-Muslims, he said.

'Kelantan is ours'

Agriculture Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Umno vice-president, told AFP that PAS had become irrelevant. "They are trying to re-establish their party but we will win Kelantan back in the next polls," he said.

Syed Hamid Albar, foreign minister and Umno Supreme Council member, said Muslims subscribe to the idea of going to heaven but not through PAS.

"Going to heaven is part of our spiritual belief but we need not be a PAS member to go to heaven. PAS politically is bankrupt. They do not have anything to offer," he said.