Malaysia, responding to a call by Saudi Arabia, has agreed to organise a summit meeting of Muslim leaders that would seek to heal rifts in the Islamic world, local media reported today.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, chairman of the the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), told Malaysian reporters accompanying him on a visit to Paris that he would despatch his foreign minister to Riyadh to discuss the plan.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on Friday urged Malaysia to organise a summit "so that we can overcome, with our faith in God ... the state of dismemberment and fragmentation" among Muslims.

The leaders' conference should be preceded by meetings among "the (Islamic) nation's thinkers and scholars ... to outline visions of the nation's future and thus assist the gathering of the leaders, which I hope will be held here, in this pure land," he said.

Iran on the agenda?

The leaders would "search for common ground and strengthen the bonds" among Muslims, the Saudi prince said.

Malaysia's Abdullah, who was in Paris for a conference on biodiversity, told reporters that the preliminary meeting would be held soon to identify the scope and topics for discussion at the summit.

"We do not want the summit to be without focus and engage in discussions aimlessly without any fruitful conclusion. We want to see implementation of resolutions adopted," he said.

Asked whether the summit was being called following US President George W Bush's refusal to rule out the possibility of an attack on Iran, Abdullah said: "Let us talk about our concerns first. Otherwise, we will be confused. If we are weak, others will threaten us."

Abdullah said the summit would touch on political issues and Islamic ideology among other matters, the official Bernama news agency reported.

OIC reforms

Meanwhile, Malaysia will host a meeting of OIC representatives known as the Commission of Eminent Persons (CEP) from Jan 27 to 29 to discuss reforming the organisation, the foreign ministry said.

The commission was formed after the 2003 OIC summit in Malaysia to "prepare a strategy and plan of action to enable the Islamic Ummah to meet the challenges of the 21st Century ... and recommend the reform and restructuring of the OIC," it said.

The meeting would discuss a wide range of issues affecting Muslims and "recommend appropriate strategies and means so as to contribute towards enhancing cooperation among OIC member states," it said.

It would then submit the recommendations to the OIC foreign ministers' meeting scheduled to be held in Yemen in mid-2005, it said.

A total of 16 OIC member countries will attend the Kuala Lumpur meeting: Burkina Faso, Egypt, Gambia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Turkey and Yemen as well as the secretary-general of the OIC Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.