Islamic party PAS today announced major reforms to broaden its appeal, and called for former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim to lead the opposition alliance.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang backed the charismatic Anwar, who is currently banned from politics after being convicted of corruption and sodomy, to lead the charge to dislodge the ruling coalition led by Umno.

"PAS is now at a critical crossroads. We must work with all including Anwar. Now even some in Umno are trying to get him back into the ruling party," Hadi said at the party's annual assembly.

"If Anwar is the opposition front, existing Umno members may join the opposition. It will boost our strength and our credibility. We have accepted him as the leader," he added.

Anwar was heir apparent to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad before being sacked in 1998 and jailed on charges which he said were cooked up to prevent him challenging Mahathir for the premiership.

Federal Court overturned Anwar's sodomy conviction last September, allowing him to walk free after six years in jail, but the corruption charge was not overturned and as a result he cannot stand for office until a ban expires in April 2008.

The next general elections are expected to be held that year and Hadi said that because Anwar was the victim of a political conspiracy and had served his sentence, the government should lift the ban.

The opposition front groups PAS and Keadilan led by Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. The Chinese-dominated DAP left the front in 2004 after PAS pushed for the formation of an Islamic state.

The new strategy

Addressing more than 1,100 members dressed in traditional Malay costumes with the men wearing white skull caps, Hadi said the party's 800,000 members must rally together to cripple the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Both PAS and Umno promote themselves as advancing the interests of Malays who account for about 60 percent of the country's 25 million population.

But outlining the new strategy, Hadi said PAS must work with all races, increase its membership, promote democracy and embrace science and technology.

He said that PAS, a party which now only finds support in the Muslim heartland states, must accept the reality of national politics.

"We need to change our strategy. Malaysia is a multiracial country. This is a fact. PAS cannot rule alone. We need the cooperation of all races," he said.

However, Hadi said PAS would not compromise on its goal of turning Malaysia into an Islamic state and introduce tough Islamic criminal laws.

"I want to remind all of you that our party's struggle is based on the Quran. The country will be administered according to Islamic values and laws," he said.

"If you steal, you will have your hands cut off. If you murder, you pay with your life." However, he said non-Muslims would not be forced to accept the Islamic laws.

DAP rejection

The PAS overture to non-Muslims was immediately rejected by the DAP.

"No, we will not rejoin the opposition front. The plan to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state has been the stumbling block," secretary-general Lim Guan Eng told AFP , adding that the plan to reform PAS was mere "rhetoric".

Analysts are also sceptical that PAS, which was humiliated in last year's general elections, can transform itself and attract the minority Chinese and Indian populations that it needs to become a viable alternative government.

"They must wake up and accept that they are not operating in Afghanistan's mountains," Shamsul Amir Baharuddin, a sociology lecturer at the National University of Malaysia, told AFP this week.