Politics, and not religion, is at the heart of the growing rift between the West and the Muslim world, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has said.

Annan made the comments on Monday, as he met scholars, politicians and religious leaders to discuss ways to improve relations between ''East'' and ''West''.

"We should start by reaffirming and demonstrating that the problem is not the Quran or the Torah or the Bible," Annan said in response to a report by the multinational group of scholars that sets out proposals to overcome the problem.

"Indeed, I have often said that the problem is never the faith, it is the faithful and how they behave towards each other."

The report said the Arab-Israeli conflict is a critical symbol of the deepening rift and called for the resumption of the Middle East peace process, UN officials said.

The group was formed in 2005 as part of a UN-backed "Alliance of Civilizations" initiative.

Mohammad Khatami, the former Iranian president, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, are among the members of the group.

The UN initiative is co-sponsored by the prime ministers of Spain, a predominantly Catholic country, and Turkey, which is 99 per cent Muslim.

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Kofi Annan