Australia, 16 August (AKI) - One of Australia's most controversial politicians, Pauline Hanson, has urged the national parliament to restrict the number of Muslims entering Australia.

The former leader of the right-wing One Nation party is seeking to register a new party called the United Australia Party in her bid for a political comeback and also win a senate seat in the upcoming election.

The 53-year-old former fish and chip shop owner, who achieved international notoriety during her brief stint as a member of parliament in the late 1990s, says she will target Muslims in her campaign.

"I want a moratorium put on the number of Muslims coming into Australia," Hanson told the Nine TV network. "People have a right to be very concerned because of the terrorist attacks that have happened throughout the world.

"I'm sick of these people coming out here and saying that our girls are like the meat market and the bible that is urinated on ... am I supposed to be tolerant?"

But Hanson said she would have the support of Muslim women if they knew how oppressed they were.

"I think that if Muslim women realise how they have been treated I probably would get a lot of support," she said.

"Maybe we should look at the female genital mutilation that happens to young girls in this country ... if people want to live by these ways then go back to the Muslim countries."

She said many of the issues raised in her maiden speech to parliament in September 1996 have been adopted by the current conservative government led by prime minister John Howard.

Almost 163,000 people migrated to Australia in 2005-2006 and just under 17,000 were granted humanitarian visas. Government figures show around 200,000 people have migrated from Africa and the Middle East since 1995.

On her personal website Hanson criticises the government for going too far with its migrant intake,saying immigration was threatening the nation's social cohesion and identity.

"If current trends continue unabated, unremittingly high levels of immigration will result in a major cultural change in Australia," she said. "Mass immigration is fundamentally altering the face and nature of our nation, but Australians are not being consulted.

"Rather, Australians are sleepwalking through the largest and most profound demographic change in their country's history."

Hanson was elected to parliament as an independent member of parliament for the Queensland seat of Oxley at the 1996 election after being disendorsed as a candidate for the Liberal Party because of her strong views on race and immigration.

In 2003, a jury convicted Hanson of electoral fraud and three years imprisonment but the sentence was later overturned.