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PESHAWAR, Tuesday (AFP) The Islamist led parliament in the North West Frontier Province adopted a bill to introduce Islamic sharia law in the region bordering Afghanistan, despite opposition fears the move could clash with laws in the rest of the country.

The bill was adopted unanimously after the opposition parties withdrew amendments they had proposed earlier.

Witnesses said members chanted "Allah-o-Akbar (God is great) after the provincial assembly passed the bill.

The sharia bill, introduced in the NWFP assembly last week, proposes to make Islamic law the supreme law in NWFP courts and to Islamise education, the economy and judiciary.

Provincial chief minister Akram Durrani thanked the opposition parties for lending their support to the bill.

"We will now mould all laws under the purview of the provincial government in accordance with the Islamic teachings," he told the house. "No one will face injustice in the province."

The NWFP is ruled by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, which swept to power in October on a wave of anti-Western resentment over the toppling of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, and which has promised to enforce Islamic sharia law.

The MMA government has already banned men from training or watching women athletes, ordered civil servants to regularly say Islamic prayers five-times, and also decided to establish a department for promoting virtues and suppressing vice in the deeply religious region.

The enshrining of sharia law has alarmed analysts, who last week expressed fears the move would be open to extremist interpretation and give legal cover to ultra-orthodox leaders to enforce harsh Taliban-style rules.

Also they warned that the system in the conservative province could spawn militancy.

Provincial law minister Zafar Azam has said the bill contained a clause that proposed the drawing up of a legal framework to ensure there was no clash between the country's 1973 constitution and provincial laws.

It also pledged to exempt non-Muslim minorities from following sharia laws. The passage of the sharia bill coincides with a new rift between the MMA government and all 24 mayors in NWFP, who resigned en-masse in protest at alleged victimisation by the ruling radical Islamic parties.

"We have sent our resignations to President Pervez Musharraf in protest at the negative attitude of the provincial government," Azam Afridi, mayor of the provincial capital Peshawar told AFP.

Durrani in a statement denied the charges that the MMA government was against the local government institutions.

"It was trying to remove certain flaws in the system," he said, calling the resignations a "conspiracy" against the NWFP government.

The dispute was seen as symptomatic of tensions between MMA and the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), which dominates the federal parliament and government.

The government of Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali is trying to convince the MMA to soften demands for Musharraf to quit the military, step down as president and undergo a standard presidential election.

Earlier opposition presented about a dozen amendments relating to women's rights and functioning of the judiciary but withdrew, fearing the house would reject if put to vote.

"We support the bill because we are Muslims and no Muslim can oppose Islamic laws," parliamentary leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party, Abdul Akbar Khan said expressing fears that Islamisation of laws in NWFP could clash with certain clauses in the constitution.

Bashir Bilore of secular Awami National Party said "there are some defects in the bill. It is only a face-saving device."

He said the bill was not in accordance with the teaching of the Koran and traditions of Prophet Mohammad.

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