India calls for media blackout of burning

India, home to the world's third-biggest Muslim population, called Thursday for the US to take "strong action" to prevent a planned Quran burning ceremony and demanded a media blackout.

A small Florida church headed by pastor Terry Jones plans to torch Islam's holy book on Saturday's anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks despite global outrage and calls from American leaders to abandon the event.

Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram, in a strongly worded statement after a cabinet meeting, condemned the "deplorable act" that was "obviously calculated to increase bitterness and strife between religious groups.

"We hope the US authorities will take strong action to prevent such an outrage being committed," he said.

"While we await the actions of the US authorities we appeal to the media, both print and visual media, to refrain from telecasting visuals or publishing photographs of this deplorable act."

India has the world's third-largest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan, calculated to number 160 million in a recent study by the US-based Pew Research centre.

"We should ignore such people, but there is now an added responsibility for the United States to rein them in," Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the chief imam in New Delhi's biggest mosque, told AFP.

"Any such act by the pastor can have serious repercussions against the administration in the US and against American troops in Afghanistan or Iraq," he said.

The All-India Christian Council also condemned the intention of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida to burn the Quran on the anniversary of the Al Qaeda terror network's attacks on the United States.

"Al Qaeda does not represent the Islamic faith and this pastor certainly does not represent the teachings of Jesus Christ," the council's secretary general John Dayal said in a statement.

Muslims are a minority in India's 1.2-billion multi-faith population, which is dominated by Hindus and vulnerable to flare-ups in sectarian tension.

Ever anxious to smooth relations, Chidambaram's statement on Thursday reflects government concern over a forthcoming court ruling on a domestic religious dispute.