The world's Muslim nations today urged the United States to drop its support for the latest Israeli plan for the Palestinian territories and called for a UN peacekeeping force to be sent to the region.

The call was made in a communique issued at the end of an emergency meeting here of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's biggest grouping of Muslim states.

The OIC said: "We emphasize that the plan and the support of the United States thereto are detrimental to the peace process in the Middle East as they are denying the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, particularly with regard to the final settlement issues, and call upon the US government to review its recent position which is counterproductive to the objectives of the roadmap."

It urged the UN Security Council to "consider the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force or an international monitoring mechanism" to ensure the implementation of the roadmap, which calls for an independent Palestinian state.

The communique said "no party has the right to make any concession to Israel on the Palestinian national rights or to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people and their legitimate and democratically elected leadership on these issues."

The strong statement reflects widespread anger in the Muslim world over US President George W. Bush's endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to keep some Arab land captured in the 1967 war.

Stick to original plan

The OIC chairman, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, told the opening session of the meeting that the plan "can literally wreck the entire peace process in the Middle East".

And the foreign minister of Pakistan, a key US ally in the fight against terrorism, warned that it would breed more terrorists.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told AFP in an interview the United States should "stick to its original position in favour of the roadmap".

Sharon's plan involves unilaterally withdrawing from the Gaza Strip but maintaining some Jewish settlements in the West Bank while the roadmap calls for reciprocal Israeli and Palestinian steps leading an independent Palestinian state. - AFP