Leaders of Islamic countries met on Wednesday to discuss how to avoid a war in Iraq in a race against time as the United States pushes for U.N. approval for an attack. The leaders are in Malaysia following a two-day summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that ended on Tuesday. It was unclear whether the Islamic states could stray far from a resolution adopted by the 116 non-aligned nations in which they urged Washington to give peace a chance and pledged support for United Nations processes.

"The only thing on the agenda is Iraq," said a North African official. "We want to prevent war against Iraq."

The meeting would prepare for a summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference to be held in Doha on March 4-5, he said.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, King Mohammed of Morocco, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam were among Islamic leaders who joined Iraqi Information Minister Mohamed Said al-Sahaf for the Wednesday morning meeting.

FREEWHEELING DISCUSSION

"This will be a free-wheeling meeting," said Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar.

In the NAM declaration, the mainly developing nations that include six current members of the U.N. Security Council stressed the Iraq crisis should be solved peacefully.

However, it also called on Baghdad to comply with U.N. demands and scrap weapons of mass destruction it may be hiding.

Iraq told the 115 other members, which comprise almost two-thirds of the United Nations, it was doing its utmost to comply with U.N. weapons inspections.

"We express our gratitude to all for what NAM has done to oppose the aggressive intentions by the U.S. against Iraq," Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan told the gathering.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad rounded off the two-day summit characterized by strident anti-war rhetoric and heavy criticism of U.S. domineering foreign policy.

Iran and Syria voiced fears Washington would use a war on Iraq to reshape the oil-rich Middle East to suit itself.

THE SWING VOTES

Syria said it would vote against a new Security Council resolution lodged by the United States, Britain and Spain on Monday that says Iraq had missed a "final opportunity" to disarm peacefully and avoid war.

Syria holds one of the revolving seats on the 15-member Security Council and is the only Arab member.

NAM's views matter because six members are currently on the U.N. Security Council -- Angola, Guinea, Chile, Pakistan, Cameroon and Syria. Seven votes against defeats a resolution.

Most developing nations want inspectors in Iraq to be given more time, fitting in with a counter resolution proposed by France and Germany, and supported by Russia and China, that would extend U.N. weapons inspections for at least four months.

Pakistan's Musharraf, a close U.S. ally, was more cautious. "We need to wait for their -UN arms inspectors'-reports before jumping to decisions."

PHOTO CAPTION

Leaders of Islamic countries (Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)) met, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia , on Wednesday, Feb 26, 2003, to discuss how to avoid a war in Iraq. The (OIC) was founded at the first summit of Islamic leaders representing 24 states, held in Rabat, Morocco,