ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pro-government rallies were held in several cities Thursday to support President Pervez Musharraf's agreement to join the U.S. war against terrorism, even if it leads to a military attack on neighboring Afghanistan.

Officials used the rallies to try to reduce opposition being whipped up by hardline Muslim religious parties who support alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, who is a prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

"Our strategy is not against the interests of Afghanistan. ... We sympathize with Afghans," Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told a crowd of several thousand people in Islamabad, mostly students, rights activists and representatives of political parties.

"We are in touch with the Taliban. We talked with them yesterday and today. We urged them to listen to the Islamic world and the United Nations," he said. Pakistan is the only remaining country that officially recognizes the hard-line Taliban militia, which has been protecting bin Laden for years.

In a sign of the challenges that Musharraf faces, the "solidarity day" rallies that his government called for Thursday were much smaller than anti-Musharraf protests recently held in cities across the country at the request of the Islamic religious parties.

Waving Pakistan's green-and-white flag, several thousand school and college students attended the rally in Islamabad outside Parliament on Thursday. National songs blared from loudspeakers and students beat drums, shouting slogans for peace and national unity.

"Today, our priority should be unity because the country faces a grave crisis," Sattar said. "We are with the rest of the Islamic world and the international community in the fight against terrorism."

"People are happy with President Musharraf's decision," said Amna Asghar, a businesswoman at the rally. "Nobody likes extremism. We want to live in peace."

In the northern city of Peshawar near the Afghan border, considered a stronghold of the pro-Taliban Islamic groups, several hundred people shouted anti-bin Laden slogans at a rally held there.

"Some people are using emotional slogans to divide the nation," Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, the local governor said in a speech. "This is an attempt to damage the national unity. We have taken a difficult decision which has placed the nation on a path of a brighter future."

A similar rally was held in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, the country's most populous province, and another was planned later in the day in the southern port city of Karachi.