Islamic nations have called a last-ditch meeting o­n the Iraq crisis but their impotence in the face of United States power - and thus the threat of increased terrorism - has been brought into sharp focus by an influential Muslim leader.

Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whose country takes over the chairmanship of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in October, was characteristically undiplomatic in his assessment of such a meeting.

He said that apart from the fact that some member countries supported the United States, the OIC realised that it was weak and nobody would pay any attention to its opinion.

Mahathir, who has led Malaysia for the past 21 years, was equally scathing about a call for jihad or holy war in defence of Iraq in a broadcast purportedly by terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

He said it was "a stupid idea".

"We want to fight a holy war if we can win. If we go in just to be killed, that's not jihad.If we want to go to a war, we must have the strategy and strength."

Adding fuel to fire

That comment highlights o­ne of the planks of Mahathir's policy o­n Islam: Muslim countries pay too much attention to religion at the expense of developing their nations and are therefore no match for those in the West.

They should spend more energy o­n science and economics, he says, rather than blame their weak position in the world o­n religious oppression by more powerful states.

Mahathir says regularly it is that perceived oppression, and the feeling of helplessness in Islamic countries, which gave rise to the Muslim terrorism which culminated in the Sept 11 2001 attacks o­n the United States.

An attack o­n Iraq, he says, will simply add fuel to the fire rather than achieve US President George W Bush's avowed aim of reducing the terrorist threat.

"There was a time when Muslim countries were in agreement over the need to stop Iraqi aggressiveness.

"Today that unity of purpose has disappeared. Muslims see the stance taken against Iraq as another act of discrimination against Muslims," Mahathir told the annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum here last month.

Southeast Asia's longest-serving elected leader said the difference in approach by the United States towards Iraq and North Korea would anger Muslims further.

Soft targets

Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert with Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, agreed, saying a US-led invasion of Iraq would "increase support" for radical Islamic movements such as the regional Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

JI, which is linked to Osama's al-Qaeda network, is blamed for the Bali bombings which killed nearly 200 people last October, the worst terror attack worldwide after those o­n New York and Washington.

Gunaratna said that although many prime suspects in the Bali bombing had been arrested in Indonesia, JI was capable of responding to an invasion of Iraq with new attacks o­n "soft targets" throughout the region.

Mahathir, despite his reservations, said Malaysia was prepared to host a special OIC meeting o­n Iraq o­n the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Kuala Lumpur o­n Feb 24-25.

Many OIC member states also belong to NAM, a 114-nation group formed during the Cold War as an alternative to the Eastern and Western blocs, which is struggling to find a new role after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Qatar, which currently chairs the OIC but is a staunch US ally, called Wednesday for such a summit to discuss the "challenges" facing the region, apparently in response to a request from Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and other OIC members. - AFP