Ayesha Siddiqa said the book, "Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy," was due to be launched at a conference hall in a government-run club on the outskirts of the capital on Thursday.

"The Islamabad Club has had instructions from the top to cancel the reservation. It is definitely an attempt by the government to ban the launch of my book," Siddiqa told AFP.

"We tried to check another hotel and we found out that the (interior ministry) national crisis management cell ordered that no hotel, small or big, is authorised to give their hall to anyone without authorisation," she said.

The author said the government wanted to ban the book because it "exposes their economic interests."

She vowed to go ahead with the launch at another venue.

Publicity for the book says it shows that the armed forces -- which are headed by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf -- have become "entrenched in the corporate sector."

Ameena Saiyid, the managing director of the book's publisher, the Oxford University Press, Pakistan, said that the Islamabad Club "decided that they could not provide the venue."

Government spokesmen and the club itself were not immediately available for comment.

The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency put out a report late Wednesday quoting unidentified analysts describing the book as a "plethora of concocted stories" containing 250 errors.

The report also contained unsourced allegations against Siddiqa of corruption and added that she was a "frequent visitor" to neighbouring India, Pakistan's bitter military rival.

Pakistani media groups have complained of increased pressure since Musharraf suspended the country's chief justice on March 9, sparking a tense political crisis.