Ayodhya 'compromise' rejected

The mosque was destoryed in 1992

A national Muslim body in India has rejected proposals by a Hindu leader to resolve a long-running dispute over a religious site at Ayodhya.

The All India Muslim Personal Law board took the decision at a meeting in the northern city of Lucknow.

A proposal by the Hindu religious leader, Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, suggests that the Muslims allow the construction of a temple in an area adjoining a site which once housed an ancient mosque.

The 16th century mosque was destroyed in 1992 by Hindu zealots who say it was built over a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu God Ram.

'Veiled threat'

A spokesman of the Board said on Sunday that that the Shankaracharya's proposals were unacceptable.

"The board puts on record that it looks upon the proposals as thinly veiled threats to the Muslims to surrender and submit themselves unconditionally to all the unreasonable demands made by the Hindu outfits," the spokesman, YH Muchhala, said.

Earlier, one of the board's leaders, Zafar-yab-Gilani, told the BBC that they would not accept any solution which involved direct talks with the conservative Hindu group, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

The VHP's sister organisation, Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, earlier passed a resolution saying the VHP must be part of any Ayodhya negotiations.

Ayodhya dig

Last week, a court gave archaeologists more time to determine whether a Hindu temple once existed on the site of the destroyed mosque.

The report will be used to assess claims by the Hindu groups that they should be able to build a permanent temple on the site.

The High Court in the city of Lucknow on Thursday gave the archaeologists five more weeks to complete their excavations and two more weeks to complete the report.

The decision pleased neither the archaeologists, who wanted more time, nor the VHP which demanded Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's government resign for not backing the temple.

The razing of the Babri mosque by hardline Hindus sparked riots across India in which more than 2,000 people died. labourers are involved in the dig.