US pastor, Terry Jones, has agreed to call off a Quran burning on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

The Christian pastor from the US state of Florida, who commands a congregation of about fifty people, has been roundly criticized by world leaders for his plan to burn copies of the Quran.

Reverend Jones told his followers to incinerate copies of the Muslim holy book on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, DC.

He has since changed his mind, he said, because the leader of a planned Islamic centre near the so-called Ground Zero site in New York had agreed to move its location.

In a televised news conference on Thursday, he called on others not to burn copies of the Quran.

He said he would fly to New York to speak with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the head of the planned New York Islamic centre.

The US president, Barack Obama, warned on Thursday that the number of people willing to fight for al-Qaeda would increase if the burning was carried out as planned.

In an ABC television interview he called the burning a stunt, saying it would only serve to increase the recruitment of individuals "who’d be willing to blow themselves up."