Gunmen fired on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s plane using an improvised Taliban-style anti-aircraft gun after ii took off from a military airbase yestcr day, intelligence officials said.

Musharraf, a key US ally who has escaped several al-Qaeda-linked assassination attempts, was unharmed and the shots did not hit the aircraft, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

"Il was an unsuccessful attempt to shoot the president’s plane/ one official told AFP.

Musharraf flew from the Chaki al a military base in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjoining Islamabad, to the southern provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan io visit people affected by recent Roods, the military said in a statement.

Pakistani military’ spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad denied that the shots bad targeted Musharrafs plane.

"It was not related to the president," he lold AFP.

But intelligence officials dealing directly with the incident Insisted Musharraf has incurred the bitter enmity of Islamic militants who oppose his ties to the United States and his support for the overthrow of the Taliban from power in Afghanistan after 9/11.

In October 2006, security forces found rockets aimed at Musharrafs official residence in Islamabad while an explosion occurred near his army house in Rawalpindi. He said the incidents had possible links to al-Qaeda.

al-Qaeda was blamed for a suicide attack targeting Musharrafs motorcade on Christmas Day 2003 in Rawalpindi that left 14 people dead. He escaped unscathed.

Less than two weeks earlier he survived another assassination attempt when attackers blew up a bridge as his limousine passed, but electronic jamming equipment in the car delayed the blast.

Security forces have foiled at least two other major plots to kill Musharraf since he took power from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a military coup in 1999.