Islamic fundamentalists ruling a Pakistani province said on Tuesday they would segregate universities and urge men to grow beards after imposing traditional Sharia law.

The government of North Western Frontier Province plans a slew of new legislations to promote Islamisation after becoming the first Pakistan region in years to adopt Sharia, provincial Law Minister Zafar Azam told Reuters.

"Sharia will be the supreme law," he said. "We will preach to people to adopt good things and give up bad things."

Azam said the provincial government would also urge men to grow beards. "We will also make laws to persuade youngsters to obey their parents," he said.

Another plan was to have separate universities for women, he said.

After voting to adopt Sharia on Monday, the provincial assembly had been expected to vote on Tuesday on setting up a version of the Department for Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, a notorious body run by the Taliban's religious police when it ruled in neighbouring Afghanistan.

However, Azam said a vote on the accountability department would now come later. He gave no reasons for the delay.

NWFP came under the control of the six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Islamic alliance after the October elections.

The MMA includes two openly pro-Taliban parties and has taken a series of steps reminiscent of the Afghan group's Islamic fundamentalism.

On Saturday, the MMA ordered civil servants to pray five times a day and urged businesses to close at prayer times.

This followed curbs on the sale of music and videos, the destruction of posters featuring women and advertising Western products, and the imposition of a complete ban on alcohol.

MMA has also banned music on public transport, medical examinations of women by male doctors, male coaches for women athletes and male journalists from covering women's sports.

Provincial officials said Sharia would have to be respected by the police and the judiciary, but under Pakistan's federal system justice is dispensed centrally.

Observers say the MMA's latest moves could widen its differences with Musharraf's government.

Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Monday that Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali was expected to announce administrative measures for NWFP on Tuesday, but gave no details.

The MMA's rise to power in NWFP and neighbourng Baluchistan has raised concerns that it could undermine the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan.