Omar al-Bashir told Abdullah Gul, his Turkish counterpart, on Sunday that he would not attend a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul on Monday, Al Jazeera reported.

The cancellation came after the European Union put pressure on host Turkey to either stop al-Bashir from attending the economic summit or arrest him upon arrival. Sudan's leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western region of Darfur.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, questioned the charges against al-Bashir and said that "no Muslim could perpetrate a genocide", according to Turkey's Anatolia news agency. "If there was such a thing [genocide], we could talk about it face to face with President Bashir."