A pan-Islamic conference on terrorism here next week is designed to bring Muslim countries into the mainstream of the fight against terrorism, the organisers said today.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the special session of foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) would not aim at a specific Islamic approach to the problem.

"A lot of blame and responsibility has been put on the Islamic people and Islamic countries, therefore we should be brought into the mainstream and contribute to the international effort to combat terrorism," he said.

"We hope we can bring into the mainstream the Islamic view so that we can overcome the problem of negative perceptions and images that have been created by the media.

"It is not intended to be a conference for bashing any countries. It is intended to build confidence, to find solutions, to make recommendations.

"We hope this will be a move that will enable us to subsequently have an international conference on terrorism.

"We will discuss the root causes, the principles, the solution and also a plan of action."

Guest of the host

Syed Hamid said 48 of the 57 OIC member countries had agreed to attend, with at least 27 sending their foreign ministers.

Afghanistan, which was suspended from the OIC when the Taliban took power in 1996, has been invited as Malaysia's guest.

The Taliban 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.

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.