He said his country is vying for the top OIC post to enable the restructuring of the forum of the Muslim states to move forward smoothly.

"When Malaysia was tasked to chair the OIC, we were also tasked to reform the organisation to make it more current to meet the challenges of globalisation," the foreign minister said.

In an interview with Chief Editor of the private news agency Enayetullah Khan last week, Albar said it would be easier to work for reforming the organisation if his country holds both the chairman and secretary general's posts.

"That being the reason," he pointed out, "we thought the best way is to put up our candidature" for the OIC secretary general.

When asked about Malaysia's position on Bangladesh's candidature for the same post, Albar said his country would go ahead with its bid for the OIC post because Malaysia wanted to work for the much awaited reforms and restructuring of the OIC.

Turkey is another country vying for the post of OIC Secretary General.

The issues of electing a new OIC secretary general and reforming the OIC are expected to be discussed when foreign ministers of the member states meet in Istanbul, Turkey, for a three-day conference beginning today.