The secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said early on Thursday he "did not see much support for external military intervention" in Syria during a summit of Muslim nations in Mecca.

Ihsanoglu, who is Turkish, was speaking in Arabic at a press conference at the end of a two-day summit called by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to discuss the crisis in Syria.

Saudi Arabia has previously called for the Syrian people to be "enabled to protect themselves" if the international community could not protect them.

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