By Samia Nakhoul

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 12 (Reuters) - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told world leaders at a U.N. interfaith meeting on Wednesday that terrorism is the enemy of all religions, calling for a united front to combat it and promote tolerance.

"We state with a unified voice that religions through which Almighty God sought to bring happiness to mankind should not be turned into instruments to cause misery," the king said, opening a U.N. General Assembly meeting initiated by Riyadh.

"Terrorism and criminality are the enemies of every religion and every civilization. They would not have emerged except for the absence of the principle of tolerance."

The forum marks a new direction for Saudi Arabia, whose austere "Wahhabi" Islam came in for international criticism after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 on the United States, Riyadh's main ally and guarantor of security.

Fifteen of the 19 Arabs who killed some 3,000 people by flying planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington were Saudis, acting in the name of Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Since then, the Saudi monarch has embarked on a diplomatic mission to improve the image of a system in which the Saudi royal family rules in alliance with a powerful conservative clerical establishment that enforces a strict brand of Islam.

Throughout history, Abdullah told the forum, conflicts over religious and cultural issues had led to intolerance, "causing devastating wars and bloodshed."

"Human beings were created as equals and partners on this planet," he said. "Either they live together in peace and harmony or they will inevitably be consumed by the flames of misunderstanding, malice and hatred."

U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and leaders and diplomats from some 60 other countries are taking part in the two-day forum.

PROMOTING HARMONY

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised Saudi Arabia for "a truly inspiring initiative for global harmony and mutual understanding."

He said a global effort was needed to confront a rising tide of communal strife and religious extremism.

"Extremist ideologies are on the rise. Societies are more polarized. Anti-Semitism remains a scourge. Islamophobia has emerged as a new term for an old and terrible form of prejudice," the U.N. chief said.

"One of the great challenges of our time must now surely be to ensure that our rich cultural diversity makes us more secure -- not less."

The forum has come under criticism from human rights groups who say it gives Saudi Arabia a platform to promote religious tolerance abroad while imposing discrimination at home.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, forbids public non-Muslim worship and imposes gender segregation and death sentences by public beheadings. Its own minority Shi'ite Muslims face discrimination in all aspects of life and are often shunned as "infidels."

Ban said the meeting would work only if it brought concrete results.

"We cannot be satisfied with declarations of intent and commonality, important as those are. What we need is dialogue that delivers," he said.

Speaking for Israel, with which Saudi Arabia has no relations, President Shimon Peres directly addressed Abdullah and other Saudi delegates to praise a Middle East peace initiative launched by Riyadh in 2002.

"The initiative's portrayal of our region's future provides hope to the people and inspires confidence in the nations," Peres said.

The peace initiative promotes the formula of Israel trading occupied Arab land in return for normal ties. (Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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