HIGHLIGHTS: The Final Communiqué of the OIC's 29th Ministerial Session Makes No Mention of Bush's Mideast Statement||Bush Mideast Doctrine to Be Further Studied By Saudi Arabia||OIC Tacitly Rebuffs Bush's Call for Arafat to Go|| STORY: Foreign ministers and senior officials from 57 Muslim nations pledged their support for Palestinians and their leadership on Thursday at the end of a three-day meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

A draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, made no mention of U.S. President George W. Bush's speech Monday in which he called on Palestinians to elect a new leadership ahead of the creation of a provisional Palestinian state.
Palestinian chief delegate Farouk Kaddoumi said the omission of any reference to Bush's speech in the draft resolution, which was later endorsed without change Thursday, was designed to give Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, time to further study the speech and obtain the clarifications they sought from Washington.

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Contacts between Arab leaders and U.S. officials were already underway.

Thursday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher discussed Bush's proposals with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on the telephone and later held similar talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, according to Jordan's news agency. Powell also spoke to Prince Saud, a U.S. official in Washington said.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the OIC meeting in Khartoum, Kaddoumi listed a mechanism for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines and the nature of a provisional Palestinian state among the topics on which the Saudis, who have been generally supportive of the speech, and the Palestinian Authority were seeking clarifications from the Americans. (Read photo caption)

Commenting on Bush's call for Arafat's removal, he said: "If the United States really champions democracy and human rights, then how come it's asking to interfere in the choice of leadership by a people?"

OIC TACITLY REBUFFS BUSH'S CALL FOR ARAFAT TO GO

However, in a tacit rebuff of Bush's call for Arafat to go, a separate declaration on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict issued by the OIC said the entire Muslim nation stood by the "Palestinian people under the leadership of the gallant President Yasser Arafat."

In the draft resolution, the OIC ministers also stated their support for a Saudi peace plan adopted by Arab leaders in March, saying they intended to use "all means and methods" to rally international support behind it. They also launched a scathing attack on Israel, accusing its army of committing "war crimes, crimes against humanity and massacres."

First floated in February by Crown Prince Abdullah, the Saudi plan promises Israel normal relations with all Arab countries in return for its withdrawal from Arab lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. It also calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.

SESSION TACKLES WIDE RANGE OF ISLAMIC & GLOBAL ISSUES

In a separate document, the ministers said they "totally reject attempts to link Islam to terrorism," and repeated the long-standing demand of Muslim nations for an international conference to reach a universal definition of terrorism - a doubtful prospect since the United States opposes such a forum.

A political committee set up by the foreign ministers issued resolutions on nearly 40 issues, ranging from conditions of Muslim minorities across the world, to civil strife in African nations, the problem of Muslim refugees and conflicts between member states.

The draft resolution called on Iraq to "show its peaceful intentions" toward Kuwait, and on the U.N. Security Council to lift sanctions on Libya.

The OIC, which has its headquarters in Jiddah, a Red Sea port city in Saudi Arabia, was founded more than 30 years ago. It's the world's only pan-Islamic organization, in theory representing the world's 1.2 billion Muslims, but has over the years earned a reputation for being no more than a talking forum that makes little difference on the ground.

Perhaps its most effective arm is the Islamic Development Bank, which offers low-interest loans for development projects in poor Muslim nations.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian Authority representative Farouk Kaddoumi gestures during a press conference following the third day of the 29th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Khartoum Thursday, June 27, 2002. Members of the 57-nation of the Organization of Islamic conference, OIC, gathered in the Sudanese capital to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other Islamic issues in the world. (AP PHOTO/Amr Nabil)