The Muslim Brotherhood, banned in Syria on pain of death since 1980, called Monday for an end to the ruling Baath party's 42-year grip on power and for the organization of free and fair elections. The movement, which was behind an armed uprising in the 1980s that marked the biggest challenge to the Damascus regime to date, called for a national congress of all political parties to ward off what it said was a "threat of invasion", an allusion to growing US pressure on the government. "The Muslim Brotherhood urges the organization of an inclusive national congress that would represent all political tendencies and religious and ethnic groups, whether based inside Syria or in exile, to form a national force capable of facing the challenges," said the statement. "The Muslim Brotherhood calls for an end to the state of emergency (in force ever since the Baath party seized power in 1963) and the winding up of the courts of exception which have been the instruments of injustice."The banned party called for the "adoption of a law on political parties and the organization of free and fair elections for a national assembly that would draw up a new constitution to deal with the needs of the moment and usher in a democratic republic." The Islamist group warned of the "huge earthquake ... on our borders which threatens to invade," an allusion to US-led force that overthrew the Baath party regime in neighbouring Iraq in April 2003. "The Baath party, which has led the country for 42 years, bears the sole responsibility for the destruction it will cause if it insists on continuing its policies and ignoring honest appeals." The group said it was acting "not out of fear that the regime might fall but out of concern for the losses to the country if it slides into anarchy."