Saudi Arabia (web|news) has invited an Israeli rabbi to an interfaith conference in Spain, potentially the first step in wider contacts between the kingdom and Israel, the rabbi told The Associated Press on Thursday. Rabbi David Rosen said Saudi Arabia called the conference, set for Madrid from July 16-18, to bring world religions together to confront common challenges. Rosen called the invitation "a historic step for them." But he warned that it might be no more than a Saudi attempt to improve its image and that of Islam in the face of criticism over the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and other instances of Islamic extremism.

No comment was available Thursday from the Saudi embassy in Madrid.

Israel and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic relations. As guardian of Islam's two holiest sites, Saudi Arabia has traditionally shunned any public contact with Israel or its representatives.

About 200 people have been invited, including Islamic notables from Arab countries, as well as Jewish and Christian leaders. Among them are Franklin Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, and former Vice President Al Gore.

Rosen said he received an invitation from the World Muslim League, sponsored by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Rosen, former chief rabbi of Ireland who serves as head of interfaith relations for the American Jewish Committee, is not identified as an Israeli on the conference list; rather, as an American Jewish Committee official.

He said the invitation stemmed from the Saudi recognition that "the world needs to see Muslim initiatives for cooperation and for constructive engagement."

At a meeting last month, Abdullah told 500 delegates from around 50 Muslim nations that Muslims must do away with the dangers of extremism to present Islam's "good message" to the world.

Rosen is a veteran of efforts to bring religious leaders together for talks. He was prominent in negotiations in the 1990s that resulted in Israel and the Vatican establishing diplomatic relations.

Interviewed by telephone from Tangiers, Morocco (web|news), where he is helping to set up a Jewish-Vatican-Moroccan conference, Rosen said the value of the Madrid conference depends on the goal of the Saudi organizers.

If holding the meeting for the sake of publicity is the whole intention, Rosen said, "then I have no great expectations, and it will be another one-off event of very limited consequence."

However, even then it would not be a lost cause, he said, citing a passage from the Jewish Talmud, "He who does right for the wrong reason will eventually do right for the right reason."

Rosen said the conference could be "the beginning of a process that is in our interest, not just in their interest, in the interest of Israel, the Jewish people and the free world."

Others on the list obtained by the AP are Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Pope Shenouda III, head of the Coptic Church.

Those from Arab nations are largely establishment figures from government-condoned institutions, including several prominent clerics representing Saudi Arabia's strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Several Shiites were also invited.

It was not immediately known who among those invited had agreed to attend.

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Associated Press Correspondents Lee Keath in Cairo, Egypt, and Paul Haven in Madrid, Spain, contributed to this report.

Written By MARK LAVIE

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