NEW YORK (AP) — Two leading civil rights leaders planned yesterday to meet with NBC and CBS network officials, as pressure mounted for the firing of a popular radio show host whose racial slurs directed at members of predominantly black collegiate women’s basketball team sparked widespread outrage.Don Imus, known for his caustic tongue, sparked controversy after describing the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.”

The April 4 comments have already earned Imus a two week suspension, the defection of some major advertisers and, on Wednesday, led MSNBC to drop the television simulcast of his “Imus in the Morning” show.

Civil rights leaders, however, have said the punishment was insufficient and have demanded Imus be fired. Yesterday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson planned to meet with officials from the CBS and NBC television networks accompanied by a delegation of civil rights activists and lawmakers to discuss the Imus situation and diversity in broadcasting.

Meanwhile, another leading civil rights activist, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has sought Imus’ firing, said he will also meet with CBS officials.

Imus has repeatedly apologised and, on Thursday, said he would now focus on meeting with the Rutgers players instead of offering more apologies.

“I’ve been running my mouth for 30 years and I’ve said some stupid stuff,” Imus said at his annual on-air charity fundraiser yesterday. But this time, the remarks were “really stupid,” he said.

Meanwhile, Imus raised nearly $1 million in the first five hours of his annual radio charity fundraiser yesterday, but it was only by voice after MSNBC pulled the plug on the television simulcast.

“This may be our last Radiothon, so we need to raise about $100 million,” Imus said at the start of the event, which has raised more than $40 million since 1990.

His ultimate fate depends on the CBS Corp., which owns both the radio station that is the host’s broadcast home, and the syndicator Westwood One, which distributes the programme across the country.

In a statement, CBS reiterated that Imus will be suspended without pay for two weeks beginning on Monday, and that CBS Radio “will continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely.”

It emerged Wednesday that a key to dropping on his MSNBC simulcast was an internal mutiny within NBC. About 30 angry NBC News employees, many of them black, met with news division president Steve Capus and said they were fed up with Imus’ brand of coarse ethnic humour.

Bruce Gordon, former head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — one of the foremost civil rights organisation in the US — and a director of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he hoped CBS would “make the smart decision” by firing Imus.

“He’s crossed the line, he’s violated our community,” Gordon said in a telephone interview. “He needs to face the consequence of that violation.”

The Rutgers’ women’s basketball team, meanwhile, appeared yesterday on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” with their coach, C. Vivian Stringer. Eight of the players are black, two are white.

At the end of their appearance, Winfrey said: “ ... I want to borrow a line from Maya Angelou, who is a personal mentor of mine and I know you all also feel the same way about her. And she has said this many times, and I say this to you, on behalf of myself and every woman that I know, you make me proud to spell my name W-O-M-A-N. You’ve really handled this beautifully.”

The fallout from Imus’ comments was quickly palpable.

Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday became the first presidential candidate to call for Imus to be fired.

“He didn’t just cross the line, he fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America,” said Obama, the only black candidate in the race.

A growing list of sponsors — including American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp. — had also said they were pulling ads from Imus’ show indefinitely.

Imus’ programme is worth a total of about $15 million in annual revenue to CBS Corp., through advertising on WFAN and syndication fees received from MSNBC and Westwood One. It was not clear how much of that total came from MSNBC.