PARIS (Reuters) -- A group of Islamic leaders and scholars urged Algeria's armed groups to join a unilateral truce observed by the Islamic Salvation Army and hold dialogue to end the country's six-year civil war.

In a statement released in Paris on Sunday, the 30 Islamic leaders and intellectuals from Morocco, Egypt, Malaysia, Qatar, Pakistan, Sudan, Kuwait and other Muslim countries also called on the Algerian government to support dialogue.

"We bless this noble and patriotic approach and we call on all armed groups to join the Islamic Salvation Army in the truce and in a global reconciliation solution to end bloodshed in Algeria," they said in a statement sent to Paris from Germany by officials from the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).

"We call on all patriotic and Islamic forces in the government and in the opposition in Algeria to spare no efforts to support the cease-fire and the reconciliation approach to end the killings, heal the wounds and restore security and peace," the statement said.

The FIS is outlawed in Algeria and its armed-wing, the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), has been observing a unilateral cease-fire since October 1997, in the hope of opening dialogue with the government to end the violence. But President Liamine Zeroual has dismissed any dialogue with the FIS, saying the "file of the outlawed party was closed for ever."

The armed Islamic Group (GIA), the country's most radical guerrilla faction, also rejected the truce as a sell-out and vowed to continue its anti-government struggle.

It was the first such call by Muslim clerics and scholars since Algeria plunged into violence in 1992.

Among them are Sheikh Ahmed Yassine, leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement; Abdesalam Yassine, head of the outlawed Moroccan Adel Wal Ihsane group; Mustapha Mashhour, leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement; and Qadi Hussein, a leading Islamic from Pakistan.

Algeria has been beset by violence since early 1992 when the authorities canceled a general election in which the FIS had taken a commanding lead.

More than 65,000 people have been killed since then, according to Western estimates.

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