Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Thursday criticized the western media of focusing on reporting one-side story of the current worsening situation in Middle East.

"The western media have been constantly reporting Israel's side of the story and broadcasting pictures of Israeli families being forced to leave their homes or to seek shelter from Hizbollah's rockets," Badawi said in his opening speech at an emergency meeting attended by countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) here.

On the other hand, the western media has failed to give equal attention to the suffering and plight of the people in Lebanon and Palestine, the Malaysian prime minister said at the conference formally known as the Meeting of Friends of the Chair Of the 10th Islamic Summit Conference.

Malaysia, which currently chairs the 57-strong OIC, called the meeting at short notice to "discuss the current situation and development in Lebanon and Palestine for determining the action to be taken by the OIC countries."

"Stories and pictures concerning Lebanese and Palestinian women and children being bombed or driven from their homes have not received their equal share of air-time," Badawi said.

Facing this situation, he called on the national media in the OIC countries to play a "proactive" role and make sure all sides of stories were told.

"The world must see with their own eyes the atrocity and inhumanity in Lebanon and in Palestine, where children constitute the majority of the dead, maimed or left homeless," Badawi said in Malaysia's administrative center of Putrajaya.

In his speech, Badawi also urged OIC member countries and the international community to work out a practical plan of actions to bring back peace to the Middle East.

State leaders, foreign ministers or special envoys of some 18 countries of the OIC gathered at the meeting, including Malaysia,Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Syria,Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.