But the foreign ministers and representatives of the 57 Muslim nations that gathered at the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur for an Extraordinary Session stopped short at formulating any concrete measure to stop Israel’s invasion of the areas under the control of Palestinian Authority, except for making an "urgent call" to the United Nations Security Council and the European Union (EU) to "provide international protection for the Palestinian people and play their role to stop Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people".

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi reserved his comments on the proposal, saying, "I believe the Islamic world has enough instruments to use."

However, he told journalists in Kuala Lumpur that if producing countries decide to use oil as a weapon, it would be very effective".

"The conference, while cautioning Israel of the "dire consequences" of the attack on the Palestinian President (Yaser Arafat), requests the UN Security Council, the two sponsors of the peace process and the EU to assume their responsibility for immediately stopping Israeli aggression and withdrawing the Israeli troops from all the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories", said a two page statement released here by the official Malaysian news agency BERNAMA.

Israeli forces meanwhile arrested more than 700 people in the West Bank cities and in Gaza, killing at least 30 civilians who had taken refuge at an office in Ramallah used by Palestinian chief security co-ordinator Jibril Rajoob.

Israel said it was unaware that civilians were at this place, which was bombed out by missiles fired from helicopters and surrounding tanks.

Israeli sources in Jerusalem said its military push into Ramallah and other cities under the control of the Palestinian Authority and total isolation of Mr. Arafat was in revenge for continued Palestinian suicide bombings that since last Wednesday have killed 30 people, and "rooting out terrorist suspects and infrastructures".

The conference strongly condemned the Israeli storming of Palestinian cities and villages as well as the headquarters of the Palestinian presidency, endangering the life of President Yaser Arafat and members of the Palestinian leadership.

"The conference considers this assault a violation of all international norms and laws and the culmination of the state terrorism practised by Israel," the statement said.

The low-level Kuala Lumpur meeting also requests the UN Security Council to take "all the necessary measures" to apply "deterrent sanctions" against Israel.

While lauding with great pride the steadfastness of the Palestinian people under the leadership of President Arafat, the OIC ministers also paid tribute to the Palestinian people's valiant resistance and Intifada against Israel.

It reaffirmed continuing support for the Palestinian people's struggle and for the liquidation of the Israeli occupation, the restoration of their inalienable national rights, including the right of refugees to return to their homes, right to self-determination and to establishing their sovereign state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) as its capital.

The Saudi Arabia-proposed initiative calls for full Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories it occupied following the six-day War of 1967 and in return, Israel would be recognised by all the Arab league states.

The foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) also rejected any unilateral action taken against any Islamic country under the pretext of combating international terrorism, an obvious reference to Iran and Iraq, two Muslim nations that were singled out by the American President George W. Bush as "evil states" alongside North Korea.

They emphasised the importance of the root causes of international terrorism, convinced that the war against terrorism will not succeed if the environment that breeds terrorism, including foreign occupation, injustice and exclusion, is allowed to thrive.

They said:" We reject any attempt to link Islam and Muslims to terrorism as terrorism has no association with any religion, civilisation or nationality; We reiterate that preventive action must be taken to combat terrorism which should not result in ethnic or religious profiling or the targeting of a particular community. We unequivocally condemn acts of international terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including state terrorism, irrespective of motives, perpetrators and victims as terrorism poses a serious threat to international peace and security and is a grave violation of human rights.

The Islamic ministers underlined the urgency for an internationally agreed definition of terrorism, which differentiates such legitimate struggles from acts of terrorism.

But they failed to agree on a common definition of terrorism and appeared divided on whether acts such as the suicide bombing of civilians should be deemed terrorism., saying the United Nations was best placed to rule on the concept.

"From very divergent views at least we have come to a view that terrorism and acts of terrorism should be condemned. Now the difficulty is what amounts to an act of terror, what amounts to terrorism", Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Sri Seyyed Hamid Albar said.

Asked whether suicidal bombers must be considered as terrorists, the Iranian Foreign Minister skipped a clear-cut answer, saying he believed that the psychological situation of these people need to be studied first.

"The difference is that the Palestinians are resisting the occupation of their land". "This is quite different from the terror attacks which were carried out on New York, which the OIC and most of the Muslim countries in the world condemned". he said.

"The question of finding a definition of terrorism is a difficult and complex one because I think even at the United Nations level there has not been any agreement as yet", Albar added. ENDS OIC KL MEETING 2402