JAKARTA, September 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In yet another sign of the mounting resentment against the U.S. policies in the region, around 5,000 Muslims from different Islamic groups joined Wednesday, September 25, a mass anti-U.S. rally in Indonesia's Central Java city of Solo and declared they were ready for Jihad, or Holy Struggle, against Washington.

The rally was held to protest latest U.S. allegations that Al-Qaeda network was active in Indonesia, said Ahmad Sobri Lubis, secretary general of the Front for the Defenders of Islam (FPI).

Around 5,000 people from various regions in Java and Sumatra attended the rally, organizers of the rally said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"We declared at the rally that Indonesian Muslims should never trust any statement from the U.S. government as long as they continue repressing Muslims in Afghanistan," Lubis said.

"Everyone who attended the rally is waiting for instructions from their leaders to stage a Jihad against America," he told AFP following the 90 minute-rally, which ended shortly before dusk.

The rally was also held to protest allegations of involvement with international terrorist networks against Indonesian Islamic leader Abubakar Ba'asyir by members of the international community, Lubis said.

The rally was decided last week at a meeting at a Muslim boarding school headed by Ba'asyir in Ngruki, near Solo.

Participants at the rally also gave their "ultimate support" for Ba'asyir, whose name, Lubis said, had been "smeared" by a Time magazine report and alleged accusations of terrorist links by Malaysia and Singapore.

A recent Time magazine evidenceless report based on allegedly leaked CIA documents claimed that Al-Qaeda had been operating in Indonesia.

Citing a foreign intelligence report, Time claimed in its September 23 issue that an alleged Al-Qaeda senior operative, Omar al-Faruq, admitted he planned to kill Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in May 1999 when she was running for the presidency.

According to a CIA report referred to by the magazine, Ba'asyir had allegedly offered assistance to Faruq for carrying out a recent plan to bomb U.S. embassies in Jakarta and elsewhere in the region.

Lubis said all accusations against Ba'asyir "must be proven by Indonesian law."

The U.S. ambassador to Jakarta, Ralph Boyce, has said the report was not an official government document, but he has also said Al-Qaeda has been active in Indonesia.

Ba'asyir and FPI chairman Habib Rizieq Shihab were not invited for a dialogue between Boyce and representatives of several Islamic organizations held at the headquarters of the country's second largest Muslim group, the Muhammadiyah, in Jakarta on Tuesday, September 24.

Boyce said at the meeting that Washington has not labeled any Indonesian Muslim groups, including Ba'asyir's Indonesian Mujahidin Council ,as international terrorist organizations, AFP said.

In an interview with the private SCTV television station from Solo earlier on Wednesday, Ba'asyir said he saw Boyce's statement as "an improvement". But he warned Indonesian Muslims to remain cautious of Washington's stance on Islam.

"We still have to be careful because no matter what [Boyce has said] America has made Islam its enemy," he said, adding Washington should be fair in solving the Middle East crisis.