Danish Muslim leaders yesterday rejected a radical group's call to boycott elections next week which Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who backs the war in Iraq and has clamped down on immigration, is expected to win. Rasmussen swept to power in 2001 with promises to clamp down on asylum-seekers. He has sent 500 troops to southern Iraq to support the US-led war, which initially had broad backing but is now losing popularity among Danes, according to polls. Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir ("Party of Liberation" in Arabic), which is outlawed in many countries, called for an boycott of Tuesday's elections because democracy is "in contradiction to Islam". But the Danish Muslim Society said 21 imams had advised voters to follow their own conscience.