Protests have erupted in several cities during the nine-day operation against the Islamabad mosque after it launched a Taliban-style campaign for Islamic law, culminating in a bloody uprising that has cost more than 85 lives.

Hundreds of demonstrators chanting "Musharraf is a dog!" rallied Wednesday in the conservative city of Peshawar near the Afghan border, while 20,000 armed tribesmen earlier in the week swore revenge on the military ruler.

Extra troops have been deployed in parts of northwestern Pakistan with close links to the Red Mosque after attacks killed more than half a dozen policemen and left the tent-housed offices of two aid agencies in flames.

Warnings of possible revenge suicide attacks on western targets by Islamic militants have prompted the authorities to boost security across the country, officials say.

Baitullah Mahsud, a key Pakistani Taliban leader based in the tribal area of South Waziristan, has reportedly sworn to avenge the mosque raid.

"If militants can hoard so many weapons not far from the presidency, the backlash could be even more violent," said Fateh Mohammad Burfat, head of the criminology department at Karachi University.

"The resistance shown by militants to the army commandos in the Red Mosque may just be a taste of what they are capable of," Burfat said.

Analysts warned that the militants would be keen to dissuade Musharraf from using the Red Mosque assault as a launching pad for a final attempt to crush extremists elsewhere in the country, especially the tribal areas.

But Musharraf -- as he has so often since he angered Islamists by withdrawing his support for Afghanistan's Taliban regime after 9/11 -- finds himself between a rock and a hard place when dealing with Islamic militancy.

On the other side are growing demands from NATO and US-led forces in Afghanistan to crack down on Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters sheltering in Pakistan's tribal areas who are launching attacks across the border.

Musharraf is a key US ally whose regime has been propped up by billions of dollars in military and other aid from Washington, yet a string of US officials have visited Pakistan this year to push him on the issue.

The United States backed the raid on the mosque.

US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Pakistani authorities had "proceeded in a responsible way on this issue". President George W. Bush meanwhile praised Musharraf as a "strong ally" against "terrorists".

The raid has at least partly eased a campaign led by secular, pro-democracy opposition parties to unseat Musharraf over his suspension of the country's chief justice in March.

They have repeatedly urged him to take on the extremists, but their words have often fallen on deaf ears as the personally westernised Musharraf seeks to please the more conservative ruling party that he relies on for support.

"There is clear evidence from this operation that the government is very serious about preventing the 'Talibanisation' of the country," said Rasool Bakhsh Raees, professor of political science at the Lahore University of Management and Sciences.