US President Donald Trump has urged Muslim countries to take the lead in combating radicalisation during a major speech in Saudi Arabia.
“Drive them out of this earth,” he told regional leaders in Riyadh as part of his first official trip abroad.
The countries, he said, could not wait for the US to counter extremist groups.
The speech is seen as a reset in Mr Trump’s tone after his harsh campaign rhetoric on Muslims stirred concern in the Islamic world.
Speaking in the Saudi capital, he said: “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it.
“That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires.”
He added that the fight against extremism was not “a battle between different faiths” but “a battle between good and evil”.
His speech did not include the controversial phrase “radical Islamic terrorism”. In the past, he has criticised his predecessor, Barack Obama, and others for not employing these terms, considered offensive by many Muslims.
The speech was a change in tone for Mr Trump, who frequently attacked Muslims in the campaign, including suggesting he would be open to creating a database of all the Muslims in the US, linking the religion with violence.
And in an interview last year, he famously said: “I think Islam hates us.”
He also called for Muslims to be temporarily banned from entering the US over security concerns. Legislation aimed at restricting travel from several Muslim-majority countries remains tied up in the US courts.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states represented at the conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh are involved in the fight against so-called Islamic State, but have been accused of backing the group and other Sunni militants – most notably in a 2014 email by Hillary Clinton released by Wikileaks.
They are now expected to sign a deal with the US to co-ordinate their efforts aimed at cutting off sources of money for those groups. Those countries include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
“The unique piece of it is that every single one of them are signatories on how they’re responsible and will actually prosecute the financing of terrorism, including individuals,” said Dina Powell, US Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy.
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