KUALA LUMPUR - Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations will gather here next month to discuss the worsening crisis between Israel and the Palestinians, a news report said.

Malaysia, current chairman of the 114-member grouping of mostly poor states, called the May 13 meeting to come up with possible measures NAM could take, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said according to the Bernama news agency.

The announcement comes just days after an emergency meeting of the world's Muslim countries held here to discuss the Middle East situation and Iraq.

Representatives from the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's biggest grouping of Muslim states, urged the United States to drop its support for the latest Israeli peace plan and called for a new United Nations mandate on Iraq.

The OIC decried US President George W Bush's endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from some parts of occupied Palestinian territory but remain in others.

Israel has also assassinated two leaders of the radical Palestinian Hamas movement in recent weeks.

NAM was formed as an alternative to the Western and Eastern blocs during the Cold War. - AFP