ISLAMABAD - Armed with rocket launchers and swords, thousands of pro-Taliban Pakistanis have crossed into Afghanistan to wage jihad, or holy war, against the United States and many more are waiting to go, a hardline Islamic party said on Monday.

Mocking Pakistan's support for the United States war against the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden, firebrand Islamic leader Maulana Sufi Mohammad has won permission from the fundamentalist militia that rules Afghanistan to send in tribesmen from Pakistan's lawless border areas.

"The convoys are going, convoys of about 1,500 people each day," Fazlullah, son of Maulana Sufi Mohammad told Reuters.

No independent confirmation of the number was available but Fazlullah said the groups of mujahideen, or holy warriors, had been flowing across the porous border since late last week.

"They are taking with them all sorts of weapons, rocket launchers, Kalashinikovs, swords," said Fazlullah, whose father is in Afghanistan's Kunar province leading Pakistanis wishing to fight alongside the Taliban against the U.S. attacks.

Pakistan's government is opposed to its nationals going into Afghanistan illegally but is unable to stop people crossing over from the tribal areas along the frontier that have been semi-autonomous since the days of British colonial rule.

Most of the crossings are taking place from Ghakhi Pass, a small border point in Bajaur Agency, where a handful of security personnel lack the power to stop the holy warriors travelling into Afghanistan.

Witnesses said the pro-Taliban Pakistanis were travelling by pickup truck in batches of 12 to 15 people ranging in age from 16 to 70. Almost none have military training but most are familiar with using a gun.

"These convoys will continue until November 9, after which it will stop," Fazlullah said from the remote village of Maidan in Malakand division in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

About 12,000 people, chanting "Down with America" as they went, had entered Afghanistan since November 1, he added.

Pakistani officials say they expect many to slip back soon after making their show of support for the Taliban, who are from the same Pashtun ethnic group, and are snubbing the policy of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Fazlullah said thousands more volunteers, armed with a motley array of muskets and machineguns, were still camping in the border town of Lagahray, waiting to join the jihad, under the banner of Suji Mohammad's Tehrik Nifaze Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) or movement to impose Islamic laws.

Most of the Pakistanis were in the eastern Afghan province of Jalalabad, from where they were waiting to be deployed on the front lines, he said.

"So far none of the Pakistanis have come under attack though they can hear planes flying over them," he said, quoting his elder brother who returned on Sunday but planned to go back on Monday.