Morocco's moderate Islamist party won a parliamentary election for the first time, preliminary results showed Saturday, the latest religious party to achieve huge gains on the back of the Arab Spring.

The victory by the Justice and Development Party (PJD) comes just one month after Islamists won Tunisia's post-revolution election and days before their predicted surge in Egyptian polls.

Morocco's moderate Islamists said Saturday they were poised for an unprecedented electoral win, the latest religious party to achieve spectacular gains on the back of the Arab Spring.

A month after Islamists won Tunisia's post-revolution election and days before their predicted surge in Egyptian polls, their Moroccan counterparts claimed to have achieved a similar breakthrough without bloodshed.

Moroccans began voting Friday in the first legislative election since the approval of constitutional reforms that give parliament and the prime minister more powers.

The election, the second in north Africa since the Arab Spring uprisings began, pits the moderately Islamist Justice and Development party against a coalition loyal to King Mohammed VI.

Morocco prepares for an election Friday likely to see a strong showing by a moderate Islamist party, but the poll risks being marred by low turnout with a pro-reform movement calling for a boycott.

The polls are the first since a new constitution, proposed by King Mohammed VI as regimes in nearby countries were being swept away in the Arab Spring uprisings, was overwhelmingly approved in a July 1 referendum.

As Islamists move closer to power in Tunisia, it is Morocco's turn to go to the polls to elect a new parliament Friday that will likely hand a majority of seats to another Islamist party.

The high-stakes vote comes a few months after Moroccans overwhelmingly approved a July referendum on constitutional reform hastily called by King Mohamed VI as neighboring autocratic regimes toppled.

The Arab League on Wednesday gave the Syrian regime three days to halt months of deadly violence against its people or face economic sanctions, Qatar's prime minister said.

The 22-member League is "giving the Syrian government three days to stop the bloody repression" of its civilian population, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told a press conference after a meeting of member states in Rabat.

Protesters pelted the Moroccan embassy in Damascus with eggs and stones on Wednesday, Morocco's ambassador said as his country hosted an Arab League meeting aimed at ending bloody unrest in Syria, amid another attack on the UAE embassy in Damascus.

Morocco's ambassador, Mohammed Khassasi, told Agence France Presse that more than 100 demonstrators had attacked the building and stripped it of its flag.

Turkey and members of the Arab League called Wednesday for "urgent measures" to protect Syrian civilians from violent repression by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

In a statement issued after a Turkish-Arab cooperation forum in the Moroccan capital Rabat, they also declared they were "against all foreign intervention in Syria."

Morocco opened its campaign for November 25 legislative elections Saturday, with moderate Islamists seen as possible winners and fears of a low turnout in the country's second vote this year.

In the last parliamentary elections in 2007 turnout was a mere 37 percent, a sign of Moroccans' lack of interest in public affairs.

Standing on the side of a road in a hectic north African capital may not be what most people would consider the ideal place to eat boiled snails.

Diners inclined to try 'escargots' may think of it as a dish best prepared by an expert chef and reserved for special occasions, like a visit to a French restaurant.