Muslims should take "simple and practical steps" to promote economic development and leadership among the faithful, an international conference was told.

The message came at the end of the third World Islamic Economic Forum yesterday, where leaders from Malaysia and Indonesia said the Muslim world must unify and reclaim its passion for knowledge to counter the West's negative image of the religion.

"Let us focus on simple and practical initiatives," Musa Hitam, chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation which organised the conference, said in remarks to close the event.

The three-page closing declaration endorsed programmes to make affordable computers available to disadvantaged Muslims, to establish scholarships and internships for Muslim youth, and to support leadership training programmes and collaborative university research.

"It is only three pages long. We wanted it to be simple," Musa said.

The declaration said "a stronger focus on business partnerships and economic development can lead to the rapid progress of the Muslim ummah (people)."

The two-day forum, aimed at boosting cooperation among Muslim communities, earlier heard that the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) accounted for 21 percent of the world's population in 2005 but only five percent of global gross domestic product.

Musa urged corporations to support education, and called for the promotion of entrepreneurship among women.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi earlier told delegates that many oil-rich OIC nations spend less on education than developed countries.

"Clearly, much more effort and resources need to be put into education," Abdullah said.

Don't worry over Islamophobia

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the same meeting that Muslims must unite to face global poverty and other challenges.

He said they should change the developed world's view of Islam "from something negative or indifferent if not hostile to something positive and enthusiastic."

But Musa urged delegates not to worry about "Islamophobia".

"It's an important subject but for another forum. Let us prove we can overcome it by being a success story," he said.

If Muslims are good businesspeople, he said, success would trickle down to others in the community.

"We have so much to offer but we have to do it ourselves," Musa said. "Get together, make money, and show the rest of the world."

Tensions between Islam and the West have deepened following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed about 3,000 people and for which Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.

The two-day World Islamic Economic Forum attracted about 900 participants including government leaders and top business executives, with representatives from the OIC countries, India, China, the US and Europe.