UNITED NATIONS: The head of an organization of Islamic nations on Monday urged the international community to proceed with caution in seeking to arrest Sudan's president on genocide charges.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir in July on charges he is behind attempts to wipe out three African tribes in Sudan's western Darfur province. The Arab League and African Union have already sought a United Nations resolution to suspend the International Criminal Court's indictment against al-Bashir.

Speaking a press conference at the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, appeared to support their stance, warning it was important that the international community did not "head to a point we cannot retreat from."

"I think we really have to be a little bit more prudent before we proceed more in this direction and I sense this is now the emerging consensus among different international organizations," Ihsanoglu said. "We have to give a chance to more negotiation for the Sudanese government to take more actions in the right direction before we have the international committee head to a point which we might regret."

The Sudanese government was sending a delegation to the U.N. General Assembly to lobby for the indictment's suspension.

At the same time, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo headed to the United Nations to urge world leaders not to freeze his Darfur genocide case against al-Bashir, saying in a statement that the indictment was necessary to "protect the victims."

But Ihsanoglu said that it was important to balance the desire to see justice done with the region's peace and security.

"We have to strike a balance between the notion of justice and that of security and peace," he said, adding "we should not sacrifice one for the sake of other."