Islamabad  - Hard-line Muslim cleric Maulana Sufi Mohammad, who signed a controversial peace deal with the provincial government in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Monday, said he hated democracy and wanted supremacy of Islam over the entire world.

"From the very beginning, I have viewed democracy as a system imposed on us by the infidels. Islam does not allow democracy or elections," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an interview held in his Swat stronghold a few days before the government accepted his demand of enforcing Islamic sharia in the region in exchange for peace.

"Pakistan's religious parties have failed in the enforcement of Islam because they tried it through the politics of democracy and parliament."

Mohammad, chief of the outlawed Movement for the Enforcement of Mohammedan Law (TNSM), has struggled for Islamic sharia in Swat since mid-1990, when his thousands of followers seized government buildings and the only airport in the district.

The deaths of dozens of people forced the government of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to announce the establishment of Islamic courts, setting aside her liberal tendencies. The move dampened tensions, but was not fully implemented.

The movement re-emerged under Mohammad's son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah in 2007, when Mohammad was in government detention for dispatching around 10,000 fighters to aid the Taliban against the US- led invasion of Afghanistan.

But this time it took on a very gruesome form.

"The main reason for the resistance in Swat is the ruler's un- Islamic policies and attitudes. Every person and organization who talks about Islam, sharia and justice faces the wrath of the state, which is secular in form and content," said Mohammad as he greeted visitors at his protest camp in the Timergara area of Swat.

"Had the government accepted our demands in 1994, we would have not seen the violence we are seeing today," he added.

Fazlullah's rebellion prompted former president Pervez Musharraf to launch a security operation that left hundreds of civilians, troops and militants dead over the last 14 months. However, this yielded little success.

According to some estimates, Fazlullah controls more than 80 per cent of Swat district. The public is forced to obey his orders, which are issued through a pirated radio frequency.

His men banned female education, bombed shops selling music CDs, prohibited barbers from shaving beards and beheaded opponents and alleged prostitutes in public.

Mohammad was released by the new civilian, secular government in NWFP in April 2008 to mediate between the authorities and the militants. He initially vowed to renounce the violence but never condemned Fazlullah's actions.

"I am against shedding blood of Muslims. But we cannot hold one side responsible for violence. If our demands were accepted peacefully, no one would have resorted to violence. The government should have talked to the Islamists instead of military action," he said.

Mohammad pledged to work for complete peace in Swat if the government enforces Islamic laws, a demand which has been met now. But the radical cleric might not stop here since he still believes Taliban rule was the idea system of government.

"I believe the Taliban government formed a complete Islamic state, which was an ideal example for other Muslim countries. Had this government remained intact, it could have led to the establishment of similar Islamic governments in many other countries," Mohammed sighed.

"I have no regret that I travelled with thousands of mujahidin to defend the Taliban regime."

However, he could not explain why he did sacrifice himself like thousands of his followers who were either eliminated in US airstrikes or captured by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.

"Taliban and my colleagues asked me to go back to Pakistan and send more people to Afghanistan to fight foreign troops and that is why I came here. But I was arrested by Pakistani law enforcement agencies," he said. (dpa)