KHARTOUM, Jan 9 (AFP) - Ousted parliamentary speaker Hassan al-Turabi vowed here Sunday to establish an Islamic state in Sudan as he predicted he would win growing political support.

"Despite the hardships we are passing through, next year you will be larger in number and greater in power and you will increase every year because the tree of Islam in Sudan has grown and has spread outwards," Turabi told a rally.

Turabi, the National Congress (NC) party leader who was ousted last month as parliamentary speaker, was speaking at a rally outside NC headquarters during Eid al-Fitr.

"The state we want to establish is one that resembles Al-Medina (Prophet Mohammed's capital city) state, which was for all people," Turabi told the rally.

He pledged his party would firmly uphold Islamic principles. "The phrase La Ilah Illa Allah [No god but God] will remain our guideline according to which we will make enemies and friends and for which we will fight," he said.

On December 12, President Omar al-Beshir sidelined Turabi, a veteran Islamist who helped him seize power in a 1989 coup, by declaring a state of emergency and dissolving parliament.

The Sudanese government has denied it was trying to expel Turabi from his post as National Congress secretary general. Instead, the party, which is being reformed and having its membership increased, will decide whether Turabi remains secretary general, it said.


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