An anti-Islamic pastor in the US state of Florida has threatened to reconsider burning the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Saturday, after having earlier agreed to call off the event.

Pastor Terry Jones has angrily accused a Muslim leader of lying to him over a promise to move an Islamic center and mosque away from New York's ground zero.

The imam has denied there was ever such a deal.

Pastor Jones,who commands a congregation of about fifty people, has been roundly criticized by world leaders for his plan to burn copies of the Quran.

Reverend Jones told his followers to incinerate copies of the Muslim holy book on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, DC.

He later changed his mind, he said, because the leader of a planned Islamic centre near the so-called Ground Zero site in New York had agreed to move its location.

He has now told reporters: "We're definitely going to think it over and reconsider it. Now we're in somewhat a state of limbo, and we have to rethink of course our position."

On Thursday, Imam Muhammad Musri of the Islamic Society of Central Florida traveled to Gainesville to meet Reverend Jones at his Dove World Outreach Center, where the Quran burning was set to take place.

After a closed-door meeting, Reverend Jones said the two men had reached an agreement to cancel Saturday's event.

He said the decision was part of an agreement with a New York-based imam to move the location of an Islamic cultural center to be built near the site of the New York attacks.

He told reporters: "The American people do not want the mosque there, and of course Muslims do not want us to burn the Quran. The imam has agreed to move the mosque, we have agreed to cancel the event on Saturday. And on Saturday I will be flying up to New York to meet with him."

Later, Imam Musri said no deal had been finalised, but he still hoped to organise a meeting between Reverend Jones and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is in charge of the New York site.

The US president, Barack Obama, warned on Thursday that the number of people willing to fight for al-Qaeda would increase if the burning was carried out as planned.

In an ABC television interview he called the burning a stunt, saying it would only serve to increase the recruitment of individuals "who’d be willing to blow themselves up."

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has already used the Quran-burning controversy to try to win new recruits through a leaflet drop, urging young men to join them in seeking revenge.