Florida pastor ?suspends? Koran burning plans

Washington : Florida pastor Terry Jones on Friday announced of ?suspending? his plans of burning copies of Islamic religious book Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of September 11 attacks on United States of America.

The ?extremist? pastor?s intentions to burn the holy book had led to an international outrage as anti-America sentiments were further fanned in the Muslim world over Jones? announcement.

US President Barack Obama had also condemned any such move to hurt the sentiments of a religious group.

Possibly bogged down by the outrage, the pastor initially announced of canceling the move to burn the holy books, but later said that he has only ?suspended? it for the time being.

Jones said that he had decided to cancel the event as he was promised that a planned Islamic centre at Ground Zero in New York (the site of the World Trade Centre) would be moved.

But when he found that he was ?lied to?, he decided to ?suspend? the event, not cancel it.

The pastor insisted that there was no pressure on him to call off the event, though official sources said that he had received phone calls from the White House to put off his plans.