Islamic summit 'invites' countries to break ties with Israel

DOHA, Qatar - An Islamic summit invited Muslim nations to break ties with Israel on Monday, but balked at a stronger call against the Jewish state over weeks of violence that have rocked the peace process.

Though strongly worded, the summit's final statement fell short of demands by several delegations - particularly Iran and Saudi Arabia - for a call committing the 56 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to a breach of relations with Israel.

''It's up to each country to decide on this matter,'' said Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Obeid, head of his country's delegation to the meeting.

Fighting between Israelis and Palestinians that has killed more than 200 people - the vast majority Palestinians - since Sept. 28 was the focus of the gathering in the capital of this tiny Persian Gulf state. Intense debates revolved around the choice of words in the call to freeze ties with Israel: demand or invite.

Syrian President Bashar Assad left the summit earlier than planned, apparently in protest of the final wording.

Less divisive was a call by Qatar's Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who said a delegation of Muslim foreign ministers should press the U.N. Security Council to take immediate steps to halt Israel's ''aggression'' against the Palestinians.

In impromptu remarks that drew wide applause at the summit's closing ceremony, Sheik Hamad said such a delegation should push the security council to ''provide the necessary international protection for the Palestinian people.''

The clashes - which have killed more than 200 people since Sept. 28, most of them Palestinians - constitute an ''Islamic crisis,'' Qatar's foreign minister said at a press conference after the summit.

''That such a small country (Israel) is shedding our blood and the blood of the Palestinian people and no one deters it ... We should be ashamed of ourselves, brothers,'' Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani said.

In an unprecedented move, the national delegations yielded to an Iraqi request that they stop referring to Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait as an ''aggression.'' A resolution on Iraq instead referred to ''the situation between Iraq and Kuwait.''

However, a reconciliation between Kuwait and Iraq failed to materialize. Its final statement said Iraq should abide by U.N. resolutions imposed after the Gulf War.

Islamic conference members also called on the U.N. Security Council to begin a ''comprehensive dialogue with Iraq ... that would lead to an end of the sanctions'' imposed to punish Baghdad for invading Kuwait.

On the sidelines of the summit, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with Iraq's foreign minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, and other Iraqi leaders about the sanctions.

The summit's statement on the Israel-Palestinian conflict also called on member states to sever ties with countries that move their embassies to Jerusalem - a move the United States has committed itself to taking, but has not moved forward on.

The summit also urged the establishment of a war crimes tribunal for Israelis and demanded deployment of an international force to protect the Palestinians.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami told The Associated Press that Muslim countries could restore the rights of the Palestinians without resorting to military might against Israel.

''If Muslim countries pooled their vast resources together there would be no need to fight Israel, to engage in military operations against it, or to cry 'we will push Israel into the sea,''' Khatami said.

In consultations on the peace process, Annan met Sunday and Monday with Khatami, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

''He was primarily in a listening mode. He hopes that the Palestinians and Israelis will not drop the ball and let the progress made at the latest Camp David talks go down the drain,'' said U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard.