Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world's Muslim nations meeting at a summit in Senegal are considering legal action against those who slight their religion or its sacred symbols.

It was a key issue during the two-day summit that ended last Friday in the Senegalese capital.

The plan represents an attempt to demand redress from nations like Denmark, which allowed the publication of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, infuriating the Muslim world.

Though the type of legal action that could be taken is not fully spelt out, the threat pits the Muslim world against the principles of freedom of speech enshrined in the constitutions of numerous Western governments.

'I don't think freedom of expression should mean freedom from blasphemy,' said Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, the chairman of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), last Friday.

At the summit, delegates were given a voluminous report recording anti-Islamic action around the world.

To protect their faith, Muslim nations have already created an 'observatory' that monitors Islamophobia. It examines lectures and workshops around the world and prints a monthly record of offensive content.

The report presented last Friday urged the creation of a 'legal instrument' to crack down on defamation of Islam, but it is unclear what kind of action could be taken. Some delegates point to European laws criminalising the denial of the Holocaust and other anti-Semitic rhetoric.

'In our relations with the Western world, we are going through a difficult time,' Mr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the secretary-general of the OIC, told the summit's general assembly.

'Islamophobia cannot be dealt with only through cultural activities but (through) a robust political engagement.'

Some delegates said that the legal approach is over the top.

'My general view would be that the confrontational approach is one my country would avoid,' said Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Iftekhar Chowdhruy, whose country is 90 per cent Muslim. 'We believe in spreading understanding.'

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, head of the world's most populous Muslim country, called for a jihad of peace, including greater democracy and efforts to empower Muslims to improve the religion's image and boost its influence.

'The possibility of an Islamic Renaissance lies before us,' he told the summit, but first, he added: 'We need to get our act together as an organisation of Muslim nations.'

AP, AFP