(AFP) Malaysia today urged Islamic countries to collectively call for negotiations to avert war in the Middle East which would only lead to more suffering and "harm to innocent Palestinians".

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Qatar, chairman of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), should call an urgent meeting to discuss the renewed tension in the region.

"If they can call for a meeting, I myself will suggest that a strong voice be sent to Israel since the situation there has become so crucial," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

"We want to achieve a peaceful settlement for Palestine."

He was commenting on reports that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had accused Zionists of collaborating with Nazis in exaggerating the Holocaust, the extermination of European Jewry.

Iran does not recognise Israel and Khamenei has regularly called it a "cancerous tumour" that should be wiped off the map of the Middle East.

Rocket base

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today Iran was building a rocket base in Lebanon to mount attacks against the Jewish state.

Syed Hamid urged the United States, the European Union and the OIC to play their role in bringing all parties involved in the conflict to the table and warned that war was not a solution.

"If there is war in that region, it will only cause a lot of sufferings and harm to innocent Palestinians. What needs to be done now is serious negotiations," he said.

He urged the five permanent members of the United Nations' Security Council to take actions to prevent the situation from worsening.

Tehran is currently hosting a conference on the Palestinian uprising or intifada which has seen vitriolic language from Israel's greatest enemies, including calls to intensify the armed campaign against it.