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GAINESVILLE, Florida: A Florida pastor who earlier announced he would call off plans to burn hundreds of Korans has said the event would now be put on hold instead, depending on whether a controversial mosque project near Ground Zero in New York is relocated.
In a day of high-stakes religious brinkmanship, radical evangelist Terry Jones at first announced he had cancelled Saturday's ceremony, which world leaders fear could ignite a fierce Muslim backlash around the globe.
But when his claims of a deal over a proposed Islamic cultural centre in New York dissolved in acrimony, he threatened to go ahead with the incendiary ceremony to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Jones, head of the tiny Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida, has threatened an international crisis with his promise to immolate the Muslim holy book on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Concern is so high that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates put in a personal phone call to Jones to try and get him to change him mind, warning that the Koran burning would put US soldiers' lives at risk.
-AFP/wk
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