Jakarta – The leader of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation said yesterday that he still supported the presidential aspirations of his ally Megawati Sukarnoputri but cautioned that the Islamic community may not accept a woman President.

"I personally support Megawati but I know some in the Muslim community disapprove of her," said Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur, the head of the 40-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) religious movement.

He is also the founder of the Nation Awakening Party (PKB), which stands third in vote-counting from the June 7 parliamentary election.

"I can't guarantee whether other Muslim leaders would support her," he said. "But we have to respect the Constitutional result. The fact that Megawati's party is leading in the results indicate that the majority of Indonesians want her to become President."

Ms Megawati, daughter of Indonesia's founding President Sukarno, heads the Indonesian Democratic Party-Perjuangan (Struggle), which is well ahead in election tallies so far with 36 per cent of the vote. Around 55 per cent of votes have been counted.

Despite this, the PDI-P is likely to fall well short of an overall majority, and a coalition government seems inevitable. The race for the presidency in November is also wide open. Analysts have warned of potential unrest if Ms Megawati fails to become President despite winning the most popular support.

The PDI-P has signed a loose cooperation deal between Mr Abdurrahman's PKB and the National Mandate Party of opposition figurehead Amien Rais.

But several Muslim-oriented parties are considering an alliance with the ruling Golkar party to try to block Ms Megawati, saying that Islam rules that a woman cannot be President.

On Saturday, Mr Abdurrahman held talks with Dr Amien and also with Mr Hamzah Haz of the United Development Party, which opposes a woman President, to discuss the presidency.

The Jakarta Post newspaper said the parties had agreed that a woman should not become President, but the PKB leader said that no such decision had been made.

Indonesia's Muslims, who make up more than 80 per cent of the population, are divided over the issue.

Muslim clerics in the NU have agreed to allow a woman to run for the presidency, the official news agency Antara reported yesterday. Mr Abdurrahman said he would not support a bid by some Muslim parties to have President B.J. Habibie re-elected to block Ms Megawati, due to the President's past links with the autocratic previous regime of Mr Suharto. Dr Habibie's party, Golkar, is in second place in the election count and remains a powerful force.

Asked about a possible compromise candidate for the presidency, Mr Abdurrahman said: "Actually, Amien has asked me to become one, but so far I have refused that."

Meanwhile, one of Indonesia's most respected Islamic scholars has dismissed arguments by Muslim politicians that Ms Megawati cannot become President because she is a woman.

"There is no such explicit ruling ... in the Quran," Nurcholish Madjid said in an interview. "History is full of Muslim women leaders."

He described as "not very substantial" arguments that Indonesia could not be compared with Pakistan or Bangladesh – both Muslim and both of which have or had women leaders – because the countries followed different schools of Islamic law. He noted that one of the country's mostly staunchly Islamic regions, Aceh, has had women leaders.