Islamic countries said on Wednesday their religion had been unfairly associated with terrorism and warned military action only bred more followers of groups like al Qaeda.
Addressing a meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi blamed "media campaigns" for creating a false impression of Islam.
"Ascribing the fanatic and perverted beliefs of the Taliban and al Qaeda terrorist organization to Islam...is a deceitful tactic and a conspiracy to contain the spread of Islamism and Islamic tendencies in the world," he said.
Iran has recently come under fire from U.S. officials who have accused the Islamic Republic of not doing enough to root senior al Qaeda members out of its territory.
U.S. intelligence reports suggest top al Qaeda operatives in Iran played a role in the May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia which killed 34 people, including eight Americans.
Iran denies harboring al Qaeda and says it is currently interrogating a handful of suspects although it has not yet determined their rank in bin Laden's network.
Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, told the conference terrorism was no friend of Islam.
"Terrorism is an enemy for all of us, an enemy for our societies, an enemy for our religion and an enemy for our culture," he said.
Officials from 55 of the OIC's 56 member states were represented at the Tehran meeting. But empty chairs stood behind the flag and name plate of Iraq, currently under the control of U.S.-led forces and administrators.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said terrorism would not be defeated by military action.
"On the contrary, such action would only serve to provide fertile breeding grounds for the furtherance of terrorism activity," he said according to an advance text of his speech.
Kharrazi said countries must coordinate their efforts "to make the whole world unsafe for terrorists regardless of their association or nationality."
"Such campaigns must be transparent, non-discriminatory, and they must be performed in the context of international cooperation on the basis of U.N. resolutions," he said.
Iran has accused the United States of having double standards in the fight against terrorism. It argues Washington has failed to deal decisively with Iran's main opposition threat -- the Iraq-based People's Mujahideen militia -- even though it is listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. government.
Conference delegates were also discussing post-war Iraq with Kharrazi calling for the United Nations to play a pivotal role in the election of a broad-based representative government, "in order to put an end as quickly as possible to the occupation of the country by foreign forces."