A special summit of Islamic leaders to discuss problems facing the world's Muslims will be held in Mecca in November, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today.

Abdullah, who is chairman of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said on his return from a visit to Saudi Arabia that the date and venue had been agreed with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

A committee of Muslim thinkers and religious leaders would be established to identify the major problems facing Muslims before the summit, including rifts in the Islamic world, he told the official Bernama news agency.

The Saudi crown prince last month asked Malaysia to organise the summit "so that we can overcome, with our faith in God ... the state of dismemberment and fragmentation" among Muslims.

The leaders would "search for common ground and strengthen the bonds" among Muslims, he said.

Malaysia's Abdullah told a meeting here of the OIC Commission of Eminent Persons last month that many parts of the Islamic world were in "deep crisis", with Muslims suffering more from militancy and terrorism than others.

"Some of the OIC countries are rich and their people affluent. But they are too few and far between. The OIC landscape is littered with nations that are poor and people that are hungry.

"They are largely at the mercy of developed nations and of forces beyond their control," he said.

The Mecca summit would also seek to draw up an agenda for the OIC to make it a more effective organisation, Abdullah said Monday.