Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today said suicide attacks on Israel will not help the Palestinian struggle.

"I always believe throwing stones and turning themselves in human bombs cannot help them (Palestinian people)," Abdullah told reporters.

"Of course by so doing they are strengthening the perception that all acts of terror are equated with terrorism."

Earlier, Abdullah officiated the three-day Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) attended by Islamic ministers. Abdullah said suicide attacks imposed a burden on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to settle the violence through negotiations.

"Yasser Arafat is in a very difficult position. Human bombs have caused negotiations to be stalled. Palestinians must work together and decide what they must do.

Abdullah warned that unless the Palestinians change their strategy, they would not be able to achieve much success.

"Unless they can change and coordinate among themselves, there is nothing much we can do.

"They are in the middle of a battlefield, they know what best to do," he said.

Islam misunderstood

Abdullah earlier told the OIC delegates that the Muslim world's jihad (holy war) must uplift Muslims from "the throes of poverty and not be pursued with guns and bombs."

"If Islam is equated with the acts of a minority who have hijacked out faith, the world will continue to fear and loathe Islam," he said.

Abdullah said there are those who regard Islam as a religion that promotes violence.

"For those willing to kill and terrorise others, they wrongly understand Islam as a religion that promotes conflict," he said.

But Abdullah reminded the delegates that the Muslim world must help the Palestinian people who are suffering and fighting for an independent homeland.

"We must be ready to provide assistance through diplomacy and humanitarian aid," he said.

Fighting for homeland

Libya's Islamic Affairs Minister Mohamed Alhadi Abusseta said Palestinians fighting for their own country were not terrorists.

"They are not terrorists. Young men and women have sacrificed to be human bombs because there is nothing else they can do. They want their homeland," he told AFP .

"They have no choice but to fight with stones, guns and everyting else. They have done everything for peace. But Israel is out to destroy the Palestinians," he said.

"We urge countries that are close to Palestine to open their borders for jihad."

Saudi Arabia's Islamic Affairs minister Al Sheikh Saleh told reporters that many Islamic scholars regarded the Palestinian struggle as a holy war and one who died carrying out a sucide bombing was a martyr.

"It is a holy struggle," he said.

Besides the Palestinian crisis, the conference will discuss ways to promote Islam, missionary activities and Islamic banking.