WASHINGTON, Sept 13: Many in Pakistan and other Muslim countries like both Osama bin Laden and President Pervez Musharraf, according to a series of survey opinion polls conducted by the Pew Research Center.

Despite soaring anti-Americanism and substantial support for Osama bin Laden, there is considerable appetite in the Muslim world for democratic freedom, says the study _ conducted in various stages from February to August this year.

A broader, 44-nation survey, also conducted by the Pew Research Center, shows that people in Muslim countries place a high value on freedom of expression, freedom of the press, multi-party systems and equal treatment under the law.

This includes people living in kingdoms such as Jordan and Kuwait, as well as those in authoritarian states like Uzbekistan and Pakistan. In fact, many of the Muslim publics polled expressed a stronger desire for democratic freedom than the people in some nations of Eastern Europe, notably Russia and Bulgaria.

President Musharraf is widely unknown in the countries surveyed and a third or more in every country except Pakistan gave no opinion. Pakistanis expressed highly favorable opinions of their president; 86 percent rate him favorably, and 60 percent view him very favorably _ by far the highest rating of any leader in the survey.

Views of Gen Musharraf are more positive than negative in Turkey, and are about evenly divided in Britain, the U.S., Russia, and Jordan. Negative opinion of President Musharraf is strongest in France, Germany, and Morocco, according to hte poll.

But 65 percent in Pakistan, 55 percent in Jordan and 45 percent in Morocco also view Osama bin Laden favorably. About half of Pakistanis also say suicide attacks on Americans in Iraq and against Israelis in the Palestinian conflict are justifiable. Support for the US-led "war on terrorism" also has fallen in most Muslim countries. America's image abroad remains negative in most nations, according to the poll.