By Corinne Heller

JERUSALEM, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A team of experts from UNESCO toured on Wednesday an Israeli archaeological excavation that Muslims fear could damage Islam's holiest site in Jerusalem.

Israel says the dig, 50 metres (165 feet) from a religious compound known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, will do no harm to the Dome of Rock and al-Aqsa mosques on the plaza, which overlooks Judaism's Western Wall.

Israeli archaeologists began what they called a "rescue excavation" at the site on Feb. 7 to salvage artefacts before planned construction of a walkway leading up to the complex, where the two biblical Jewish Temples once stood.

The dig touched off violent Muslim protests in Arab East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City where the compound is located.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said last week it was sending a "technical mission" to assess work at the excavation site, in a bid to help "alleviate tensions".

A spokesman for UNESCO in Jerusalem said the experts visited the excavations but he gave no details of Wednesday's tour.

Israeli Antiquities Authority spokeswoman Osnat Goaz said Israel invited the group, which consists of four officials, including the director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, as part of its efforts to display "full transparency" over the dig.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has also agreed to a visit to the site by a delegation from Turkey, a Muslim but secular nation, but no date has been announced.

WEBCAMS

Israel says the project, which can be viewed over the Internet through cameras it installed at the site, is essential as an existing ramp leading to the complex was considered unsafe after it was damaged by a snowstorm and an earthquake in 2004.

The excavations have sparked Muslim anger around the world. Israel's Islamic Movement, whose leader was banned by a court from approaching the site after he tussled with police in the recent protests, had planned to hold a conference in East Jerusalem to discuss the dig.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police banned the gathering, saying they were "convinced that there is a Hamas connection in the organisation of the conference". Israel's Islamic Movement has denied this.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally. It considers Hamas, which formed a Palestinian government in March after winning a parliamentary election, to be a terrorist group. (Additional reporting by Avida Landau in Jerusalem)

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