Islamic states will meet to discuss the Iraq crisis immediately after the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit next week, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said today.

The current head of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Qatar, had dropped its initial objections to the meeting, national news agency Bernama reported.

"Qatar has agreed and they are supportive of the informal discussions," the agency quoted Syed Hamid as saying.

He said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Qatar's Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, current head of the OIC, discussed the meeting in a telephone conversation yesterday.