The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a group of 57 member states, urged the Muslim community around the world to give political, humanitarian and financial aid to the victims of violence in northwest Myanmar.

"This is a large humanitarian crisis but unfortunately the international and Muslim communities are mostly unaware of the dimensions," Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told a news conference on Tuesday.

"In this holy month I call upon all the Muslims...to extend aid for this issue."

Longstanding tensions between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists (backed by police) and Muslim Rohingyas boiled over in Myanmar's Rakhine state early last month, resulting in a series of arson and machete attacks in which thousands of Muslims were killed and wounded.

Thousands of homes have been torched and tens of thousands of people displaced. Myanmar's government regards the Muslims Rohingyas  as illegal immigrants, though Rohingya activists say their lineage in the region dates back centuries.

"There is displacement where tens of thousands of people lost their homes. There is a great need to house them, feed them, help them medically...There is a need for political and humanitarian aid. There is also a need for financial aid," Ihsanoglu said.

The "political aid" would consist of diplomatic representations to the Myanmar government on behalf of the Rohingyas, he said.

"We asked member states, who have embassies in Myanmar, to call the government and ask them to improve their treatment of those people."

The OIC will hold a consultative meeting in Kuala Lumpur on August 3 to determine possible ways to deliver aid to affected people in Myanmar and refugees from the violence who fled to neighboring countries, Ihsanoglu said.

The OIC plans to discuss the issue further during its extraordinary summit in Mekkah on August 14-15.