CAIRO: Sunni Islam s top religious authority, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawy, urged US President Barack Obama to choose his Al-Azhar University in Cairo as the venue for a promised address to Muslims next month.

Tantawy said he hoped that Al-Azhar as the center of moderate and civilized Islam will be the venue the US president chooses for his speech to the Muslim world, Egypt s state-run MENA news agency reported.

The leading cleric hailed Obama s plans to speak out to Muslims on June 4 and promised to support efforts for a rational dialogue between the United States and the Muslim world.

The White House announced on Friday that Obama would honor a campaign pledge to try to improve Muslim views of the United States but it did not specify where in Egypt he would deliver the promised speech. -AFP