More than 3,000 Pakistanis want to become citizens in the northern European nation of Ladonia, the country's state secretary said yesterday. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist.

Ladonia is a piece of land in southern Sweden only one square kilometre in size, and as a nation exists mainly on the Internet (http://www.aim.se/ladonia) and in the mind of its creator, artist Lars Vilks.

"It all started a month ago when we began getting the first applications from Pakistan, and then the pace really picked up," Vilks, whose Ladonian title is state secretary, told Reuters.

"We got regular mail asking how to get to Ladonia and where our embassy in Pakistan is situated," Vilks said.

The artist set up Ladonia in 1996 to protest an attempt by Swedish authorities to remove two large abstract works of art he built at a scenic location in SkÂne, southern Sweden.

Surprised and upset that the website had given people false hopes, Vilks has temporarily shut down the site's citizen application facility. The imaginary country already has 6,000 registered "citizens."

"I just spoke with my Minister of Internet. We are going to try and open it again, with a text warning people that we cannot provide jobs or housing," Vilks said.