Afghanistan has been invited as a guest to a special session of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) foreign ministers on terrorism here next week, official Bernama news agency said today.

Afghanistan was suspended from the 57-member grouping at the 24th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Jakarta in December 1996 following the fall of the then government to the Taliban.

The Taliban in turn was ousted by United States-led forces last year after terror attacks on New York and Washington blamed on Afghanistan-based Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah of the Afghan interim government led by Prime Minister Hamid Karzai will head a three-member delegation to the three-day meeting starting on Monday.

"We will try to talk to as many OIC member countries as possible at this meeting on the issue of terrorism and the impact on Muslims and also discuss the suspension (from the OIC) ... to get back our seat," said Afghan embassy spokesman Sayed Ruhullah Quraishi.

The conference will be opened by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who condemned both the terror attacks on the US and reprisals against Afghanistan.

Mahathir has repeatedly said Islam has been unjustly singled out as a source of terrorism, and that the root causes of the phenomenon need to be examined.