By David Alexander and Ben Gruber

WASHINGTON/GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday he hoped a Florida pastor would drop a plan to burn Korans on U.S. soil, saying such an act could deeply harm the United States abroad.

News of the plan has already outraged many Muslims around the world.

“This is a way of endangering our troops, our sons and daughters …. you don’t play games with that,” Obama told a Washington news conference in which he made an earnest appeal for the United States to preserve broad religious tolerance.

Pastor Terry Jones of the tiny, little-known Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida has backed off a threat to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Saturday.

But the bewhiskered fundamentalist Christian preacher has still not completely ruled it out.

Referring to “the individual down in Florida,” Obama noted the pastor’s Koran-burning plan had already caused anti-American riots in Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are engaged in a grueling war against Muslim Taliban militants.

GAINESVILLE, Florida (Reuters) – A Christian pastor on Thursday canceled a plan to burn copies of the Koran at his obscure Florida church, which had drawn international condemnation and a warning from President Barack Obama that it could provoke al Qaeda suicide bombings.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Terry Jones, an obscure minister who heads the tiny Dove World Outreach Center church in the Florida town of Gainesville, to urge him not to go ahead, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates had expressed “grave concern” in the brief telephone call with Jones that the Koran burning “would put the lives of our forces at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Jones later told journalists outside his church that he was calling off his plan, which had caused worldwide alarm and raised tensions over this year’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

He confirmed Gates’ call but linked his decision to what he said was an agreement by Muslim leaders — which they denied — to relocate an Islamic cultural center and mosque planned close to the site of the September 11 attacks in New York.

The proposed location has drawn opposition from many Americans who say it is insensitive to families of the victims of the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“The imam has agreed to move the mosque, we have agreed to cancel our event on Saturday,” Jones said.

GAINESVILLE, Florida (Reuters) – A Christian pastor on Thursday cancelled a plan to burn copies of the Koran at his obscure Florida church, which had drawn international condemnation and a warning from President Barack Obama that it could provoke al Qaeda suicide bombings.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates called Terry Jones, an obscure minister who heads the tiny Dove World Outreach Centre church in the Florida town of Gainesville, to urge him not to go ahead, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates had expressed “grave concern” in the brief telephone call with Jones that the Koran burning “would put the lives of our forces at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Jones later told journalists outside his church that he was calling off his plan, which had caused worldwide alarm and raised tensions over this year’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

He confirmed Gates’ call but linked his decision to what he said was an agreement by Muslim leaders — which they denied — to relocate an Islamic cultural centre and mosque planned close to the site of the September 11 attacks in New York.

The proposed location has drawn opposition from many Americans who say it is insensitive to families of the victims of the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“The imam has agreed to move the mosque, we have agreed to cancel our event on Saturday,” Jones said.

By Ben Gruber

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) – President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that an obscure U.S. Christian pastor’s plan to burn the Koran could provoke al Qaeda suicide bombings, as international pressure mounted on Washington to step in.

“This is a recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda,” Obama said in an ABC television interview. “You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan. This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities.”

The international police agency Interpol warned governments worldwide of an increased risk of terrorist attacks if the planned burning went ahead and the U.S. State Department issued a warning to Americans traveling overseas.

The FBI already has advised of possible retaliatory attacks on U.S. facilities abroad.

Terry Jones, leader of a small Protestant church with about 30 members in Gainesville, Florida, is planning to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed almost 3,000 people.

Increasing pressure on Jones to abandon his plan, the United Nations warned that the Taliban could try to exploit anger over the Koran burning to derail Afghanistan’s Sept. 18 parliamentary election.

GAINESVILLE, Florida (Reuters) – President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that an obscure U.S. Christian pastor’s plan to burn the Koran could provoke al Qaeda suicide bombings, as international pressure mounted on Washington to step in.

“This is a recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda,” Obama said in an ABC television interview. “You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan. This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities.”

The international police agency Interpol warned governments worldwide of an increased risk of terrorist attacks if the planned burning went ahead. The FBI already has advised of possible retaliatory attacks on U.S. facilities abroad.

Terry Jones, leader of a small Protestant church with about 30 members in Gainesville, Florida, is planning to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed almost 3,000 people.

Church officials say they have 200 copies of the Koran and Jones says Jesus would approve of his plan for “Burn a Koran Day,” which he calls a reprisal for Islamist terrorism. But many people, both conservative and liberal, have dismissed it as an attention-seeking stunt by the preacher, who is author of a book titled “Islam Is of the Devil.”

“DEFINITELY THINK IT OVER”

Jones told USA Today he had not been contacted by the White House. If he were, “that would cause us to definitely think it over. That’s what we’re doing now. I don’t think a call from them is something we would ignore.”

PENSACOLA BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – Florida saw its worst impact yet from the BP oil spill as thick oily sludge washed ashore on Pensacola Beach on Wednesday and emergency workers found an oil-covered dolphin stranded on the shore.

State emergency workers said the pudding-like mixture covered 3 miles of Pensacola Beach, a barrier island that is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

“It’s just a line of black all the way down the beach as far as you can see in both directions. It’s ruined,” said Steve Anderson, a Pensacola fisherman.

Small tar balls have washed ashore intermittently on beaches in the tourism-dependent western Florida Panhandle in the last couple of weeks, but large slicks of oil and tarry mats floated in on Wednesday.

Governor Charlie Crist toured the area, prodding the oily goo with a stick in the Casino Beach section of Pensacola Beach.

“We’ve seen tar balls but never this kind of stuff,” the Pensacola News-Journal quoted the governor as saying.

The oil-covered dolphin was found in the area affected by the sludge, near Fort Pickens. With the help of the Coast Guard, emergency workers kept it wet until a wildlife decontamination crew arrived.

GENEVA, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Haiti urgently needs $1 million to rebuild weather stations shattered by last month’s earthquake, so it can warn the public if floods or hurricanes threaten in the coming months, the UN weather agency said on Tuesday. Haiti, still reeling from a Jan. 12 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and made 1.2 million others homeless, is prone to climate-related disasters including hurricanes, flash floods, mudslides and drought. The rainy season begins in April and the hurricane season in June but last month’s earthquake has destroyed many of the emergency shelters on the Caribbean island. "There is absolutely no time to waste. It is very important to help Haiti to be as ready as possible," Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), told a news briefing. "It is vital not only to minimise risks but to manage them via early warning systems so people can be evacuated," he said. The homeless are highly vulnerable to hurricanes, whose high winds and heavy rains can trigger mudslides in the heavily deforested nation, especially near shantytowns along the southern coast, according to the WMO. Haiti’s meteorological services were barely operational before the quake and its staff are now working from a tent at Port-au-Prince airport after its premises were damaged. It has no radar or functioning automated weather stations to collect data and the United States, Canada and the Dominican Republic are providing forecasts for air safety and aid operations, the Geneva-based agency WMO said. It will cost $1 million to restore basic communications systems and automated weather stations, provide computers, back-up generators and train staff over the next year, it said. Haiti previously relied heavily on television and other media to relay early warnings, according to Robert Masters, WMO director of development and regional activities. "How do people get the information, the warnings if they don’t have television, electricity or a house? There needs to be some kind of approach that makes sure people get warnings. "In some areas we’ve used simple technologies, you get large sirens or you have people ride around on bicycles and make sure that they know something is happening," he said. In all, the WMO says Haiti will need $15 million over the next three to four years to provide basic services such as forecasting and observation. (Editing by Jon Boyle)

GENEVA (Reuters) – A United Nations scientific agency backed on Friday a proposal to ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, saying the species prized by sushi lovers needed to recover from commercial overfishing.

Monaco had proposed protecting bluefin tuna, which can fetch up to $100,000 in Japan, by listing it under appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

“In our opinion, the criteria for including the species in appendix 1 are met and international commercial trade in bluefin tuna should be prohibited,” David Morgan, head of CITES scientific unit, told a news briefing.

Some 175 countries are due to vote on 40 proposals during the CITES triennial meeting in Doha, Qatar, from March 13-25.

The Swiss-based treaty body, which regulates international trade in wildlife, seeks consensus on its regulations to conserve and manage sustainably 34,000 animal and plant species.

Some 530 animals species — including all the great apes, cheetahs, the snow leopard, the tiger, and all sea turtles — as well as 300 plants are on its appendix I banning international commercial trade in species deemed under threat of extinction.

But Japan strongly opposes the bluefin ban and in order for it to be adopted, a two-thirds majority is required.

GENEVA, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The United Nations food agency said on Friday a lack of funds had forced it to cut back rations for around one million people in Yemen, despite growing chronic hunger. The United Nations earlier warned in a Reuters interview that a lack of donor support was threatening life-saving programmes in Yemen while the West discusses how to help as part of its fight against terrorism. "We don’t physically have enough food to give everybody a full ration. That means we are reducing the rations to stretch it out and make it last as long as possible," said Emilia Casella, spokeswoman of the World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP aims to feed 1 million people a month in the Arab world’s poorest country, where families are struggling to meet higher food prices, she told a news briefing. They include 250,000 people who have fled their homes during the five-year conflict in the north between government forces and al Houthi rebels, and Somali refugees and school children. Rations were cut in February to 1,700 kilo calories per person from 2,100 and may have to be reduced further if donors don’t provide funding, Casella said. The top United Nations aid official John Holmes warned on Thursday in an interview with Reuters that the humanitarian situation in Yemen was worsening, yet donors were shunning the country, thereby jeopardising life-saving programmes. [ID:nLDE61321D] The United Nations appealed for $177 million in humanitarian aid for Yemen during 2010. It is only 0.4 percent funded. "If we don’t get some money, the aid pipeline will run out," he said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Yemen’s government at a conference in London last week to push through reforms to tackle the root causes of poverty and instability that are fuelling militancy. [ID:nLDE60Q1SN] The latest food cuts come on the heels of a WFP survey that revealed that one out of every 3 Yemenis — or 7.5 million people — suffer chronic hunger, Casella also told Reuters. The WFP needs $30 million for the next six months to cover foods needs in Yemen, she said. As a "stop-gap" measure, it had used an internal loan of $4 million which has to be repaid. "If donor funds are not found in the next weeks it is likely it will lead to further ration reductions and even the possible suspension of a number of programmes by the end of June," Casella said. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday that a shortage of funds is hampering its ability to register people fleeing the fighting and could delay building a third refugee camp at Al Mazrak for displaced people from Saada. "We are facing a dramatic funding situation in Yemen and may be forced to scale down our operations for refugees and internally displaced people there if we do not receive fresh contributions very soon," said spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. Conflict in Somalia continues to drive more Somali refugees towards Yemen, which hosts 170,000 refugees in all, she added. (Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Philippa Fletcher)

GENEVA (Reuters) – The humanitarian situation in Yemen is worsening, yet donors are shunning the country, putting life-saving programs at risk, the top United Nations aid official said on Thursday.

John Holmes, U.N. emergency relief coordinator, also said in an interview that intensified fighting between government forces and al-Houthi rebels in the north was preventing aid agencies reaching trapped civilians.

An estimated 250,000 people have fled their homes during the five-year conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country, doubling the figure since the latest round of fighting erupted in August, according to U.N. figures.

“The humanitarian situation is just getting worse without any doubt,” Holmes told Reuters. “Needs are great and in danger of not being met because the international community, the donors, have not responded as we would have hoped.”

The United Nations appealed late last year for $177 million in humanitarian aid for Yemen during 2010. It is only 0.4 percent funded, according to Holmes.

“If we don’t get some money, the aid pipeline will run out,” he warned.

The World Food Program (WFP), a U.N. agency, has indicated that its “food pipeline is about to break and they will have to reduce the numbers they are helping” in Yemen, he said.