A planned visit by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to a mosque in Jack Straw’s constituency in the North West of England has been cancelled because of threats from anti-war protesters to invade the building.

Dr Rice is visiting Blackburn tomorrow to repay a visit that the Foreign Secretary made to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, last year.

Ibrahim Master, a member of the governing committee at the Masjide Al Hidayah mosque, said that Dr Rice's visit had been called off for security reasons, after local Muslims opposed to the war in Iraq had threatened to protest.

Mr Master said: "The visit wasn’t cancelled because we don’t like Condoleezza Rice. What these people had threatened to do was invade the mosque during dawn prayers. It would have compromised the safety of the visiting dignitaries."

It is not the first adjustment to Dr Rice's itinerary. Mr Straw's hope of taking her to watch his beloved local football team play were scuppered when it was discovered that Rovers does not have a home fixture that weekend. A visit to a local maritime museum has been hastily substituted.

Her visit will, however, include a concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and a visit to the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in Sir Paul McCartney's old school. Stop the War campaigners have organised protests outside both venues and Roger McGough, the poet who was due to compere the concert at the Philharmonic, has pulled out.

Alex Martindale, a leader of the Blackburn Stop the War coalition, said that the cancellation of the mosque visit was evidence of the strong local opposition to Dr Rice's visit.

"An historic decision has been made," he said. "It has been presented that local people would be in support of Jack Straw’s invitation to the US Secretary of State. But this decision is evidence that the bulk of the community, Muslim and otherwise, are strongly against the visit."

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "It’s a pity that we will not be visiting a mosque in Blackburn. Everything we are doing on this visit is being done with respect to the communities involved, taking their views into consideration.

"We are looking forward to meeting Muslim and civic leaders during the visit."

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