NEW YORK, Sept 13: President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday urged world governments to resolve long-standing disputes and ensure a just distribution of economic benefits if they wanted to fight extremism.

“It is necessary to urgently resolve conflicts and disputes, especially where these involve friction between different religions and faiths, for example in Palestine and Kashmir,” he told an international conference here.

The conference on “the interfaith dialogue and cooperation for peace,” co-sponsored by Pakistan, brought together world leaders to explore initiatives for promoting harmony among major faiths.

President Musharraf said that specific efforts should be made to bring benefits of development to societies facing problems of interfaith friction and extremism. “Such support should aim at poverty eradication and generation of socio-economic growth and human development.”

He said Pakistan had been promoting religious and cultural understanding, harmony and cooperation within its border and with other nations.

Underlining the need to take a united stance against terrorism, he urged all nations to ban extremist groups and prevent the distribution of hate literature.

“We must prohibit extremist organizations and hate literature; prevent misuse of places of worship for the promotion of extremist views. We need to ensure that educational institutions do not foster extremism and terrorism.”

The president said that religious leaders and scholars from all cultures and faiths should be involved in the interfaith dialogue, “even some of those who hold extremist views and are un-enlightened about the virtues of other faiths, cultures and civilizations.”

Welcoming United Nations chief Kofi Annan’s initiative for promoting interfaith trust, he suggested that the secretary-general should also create a ‘United Nations office for interfaith cooperation’.

The international community, he said, should adopt and implement a comprehensive strategy for promoting cooperation and understanding among faiths and cultures.

“Such a strategy should be inclusive — involving governments, civil society, private sector, media and international organizations.

“It should cover the political, socio-economic, religious, cultural and institutional aspects and supported by adequate financial resources, from governments and the private sector,” he added.

The president urged governments to “adopt conscious policies for protection of religious minorities.”