The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) approved the registration of the city of Rabat, the capital of the Kingdom of Morocco; the cities of Tunisia, Kairouan, and Mahdia in the Tunisian Republic; the historic Cairo in the Egyptian capital; the Casbah of Algiers in Algeria; and the city of Nizwa in the Sultanate of Oman, on the Islamic World Heritage List.

ISESCO Director-General Dr. Salim M. AlMalik called on the ministers of culture and the competent authorities in the member states to continue to provide technical files to register all the physical, non-physical, natural and industrial heritage sites in their countries on the Islamic World Heritage List.

ISESCO established a special unit to register heritage sites in the Islamic world, under strict scientific and international standards. The ISESCO also signed an agreement with UNESCO to cooperate in the registration of the member states' sites on the World Heritage List, AlMalik explained.

AlMalik warned that heritage and cultural institutions in a number of member states are subject to bulldozing, destruction and looting, pointing out that the List of World Heritage in Danger contains 37 sites within the Islamic world, out of a total of 54 sites, at a rate of nearly 70 percent of the sites at risk. (QNA)