Cairo: Leaders of Islamic nations called on Thursday for a “serious dialogue” between Syria’s government and an opposition coalition on a political transition to put an end to nearly two years of civil war.

A final statement after a two-day summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation backed an initiative by Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia to broker negotiations to stop the bloodshed in which at least 60,000 people have died.

“We all agreed on the necessity to intensify work to put an end to the tragedies which the sisterly Syrian people are living through,” Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi told the closing ceremony.

The statement did not call on Al Assad to step down, but the summit exposed conflicting views among Muslim and Arab nations about the Syrian civil war. In the past, many nations at the summit, including Egypt, have demanded that the Syrian leader step aside.

Egypt’s Islamist president sharply criticised Al Assad’s embattled regime in his address to the summit, but did not directly call for the Syrian leader to leave as he had in past comments.

The Syrian government, he said, “must read history and grasp its immortal message: It is the people who remain and those who put their personal interests before those of their people will inevitably go.”

The summit also witnessed the first visit of an Iranian president to Egypt in more than three years, as Egypt’s Islamist government aimed for warmer relations with Iran.

In a goodwill gesture, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in remarks carried by Egypt’s official news agency that Iran will cancel visa requirements for Egyptian tourists and merchants.

“Lifting visas for merchants and tourists coming from Egypt to Iran, will be announced,” he was quoted by MENA as saying. “Every day we will take steps forward.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Cairo reflected Egypt’s attempts to strike an independent foreign policy and reassert Egypt’s historic regional leadership role following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, a close US ally who shared Washington’s deep suspicions of Tehran.

In an interview with Egyptian state television, Ahmadinejad said he wants his allies in the Syrian regime to negotiate with the opposition for the staging of a free election, The two sides should “sit at the negotiations table to find a solution to the crisis, through mutual understanding,” he said.

He said the preferred outcome would be “free elections, and the Syrian people are the ones who decide Syria’s fate.”

Iran is the main regional backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, while most Arab states support the opposition.

Foreign ministers of Egypt, Iran, Turkey met on Syria on the summit’s sideline, a day after Mursi held talks with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts, Ahmadinejad and Abdullah Gul, diplomat said.

“The process is still ongoing,” Mohammad Akhoundzadeh, a deputy Iranian foreign minister, told reporters.