* Demands include resignation of state government
* President, state governor say ready to dialogue
* Attacks have been almost daily
Maiduguri, Nigeria - A radical Islamist sect in northeastern Nigeria called for the resignation of the local government on Monday, saying it would continue guerrilla attacks around the country if its demands were not met.
In a statement distributed around the northeastern city of Maiduguri by members of Boko Haram, the sect repeated its demand that strict sharia Islamic law be applied across northern Nigeria and that all of its detained members be released. It called for the resignation of the government of Borno state, of which Maiduguri is the capital, and demanded the prosecution of the former state governor and senior security officials for the killing of its leader in 2009.
"If the federal government cannot fulfil these conditions, we cannot participate in any dialogue," the statement said.
"The proposed deployment of additional troops to the state ... would not deter us from the ongoing guerrilla attacks in any parts of the country," it said.
The views of Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful", are not espoused by most of the country's Muslim population, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.
Suspected Boko Haram members have carried out almost daily attacks around Maiduguri in recent months. They have targeted soldiers, policemen, prison warders and politicians as well as religious and traditional rulers opposed to their ideology.
Three explosions hit Maiduguri last Tuesday, killing at least five people, and there were gun battles in the streets as police stations came under attack.
A spokesman for the group also claimed responsibility for coordinated bombs that killed at least 16 people hours after President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in on May 29.
Jonathan voiced support last week for negotiations with Boko Haram, drawing a parallel with an amnesty deal that has brought a year and a half of relative peace in the Niger Delta oil region hundreds of kilometres to the south.
Borno state governor Kashim Shettima met Vice President Namadi Sambo and security chiefs last Thursday to discuss the situation and said "the line of dialogue is very much open".
He declined to comment on the possibility of sending additional troops to Borno.
Boko Haram launched an uprising in 2009, attacking government buildings and leading to days of gun battles with the security forces in which as many as 800 people were killed.
The military eventually used tanks and bulldozers to destroy the compound belonging to sect leader and radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf, who was shot while in police detention during the violence, leading to an outcry from rights groups.