The Congress high command has instructed all its state units to organise rallies both at the block and state levels to condemn the US-led led attack on Iraq.

In a letter to all PCC chiefs, All India Congress Committee general secretary, Oscar Fernandes, has asked them to make the hostilities in the Gulf a big issue and simutaneously highlight the Union government's ambivalent stand on it.

The attack on Iraq, the party feels, has created an anti-American feeling across the country.

With the Union government unable to take a clear anti-war stand, the Congress feels it stands to gain in the next round assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chattisgarh by by taking up the issue.

Oscar Fernandes told rediff.com that nearly 10,000 Congress block presidents, who are attending a two-day party conclave in New Delhi, would be, among other things, "adivised to go back to their respective areas and launch an offensive against the government on the Iraq war."