Indonesia will host an international meeting of influential Muslim clerics in early April aimed at resolving conflicts in the Middle East, particularly the growing divide between Shiites and Sunnis.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has signed the invitation letters to participants and representatives from the Indonesian Islamic organizations, national newspaper The Jakarta Post reported Monday.

"It would be unethical if Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, just sat and watched while there are ongoing conflicts, particularly the sectarian violence in the Middle East," he said.

Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), was quoted as saying that the two-day meeting will take place on April 2-3 at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java.

He said some 20 clerics from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia were expected to attend.

Speaking Friday in Jakarta during a week-long visit, Iran's Supreme Court chief Ayatollah Sayyed Mahmoud Hasehemi Shahrudi welcomed the planned meeting.

However, he noted the sectarian violence taking place in Iraq was caused by the US and its allies.

"Shiite and Sunni sects had lived in peace for hundreds of years. The harmony, however, ended when troops from the US and its allies came to invade and conquer Iraq," said Shahrudi.

He also urged Islamic countries to unite and form a new international organization to overcome conflicts within the Islamic world.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2007)