Over 1.3 mln Muslims already in Saudi for Haj

RIYADH, Tuesday (Reuters) More than 1.3 million Muslims have arrived in Saudi Arabia for the annual haj pilgrimage but their numbers will be slightly lower than last year due to safety concerns, a Saudi official said on Monday.

Around 1.5 million foreign pilgrims are expected to arrive in the Muslim holy city of Mecca from all over the world by Sunday when the five-day ritual, which is a duty at least once in a lifetime for every able-bodied Muslim, begins.

"Last year we had 1,534,000 (foreign) pilgrims. But the tendency of the new minister of haj affairs is to decrease the number," said Osama al-Bar, who heads a government haj centre. Bar said around a million Saudi-based pilgrims were licensed to take part in the haj. Up to 300,000 more are expected to slip into Mecca without permits, taking the number of total pilgrims to over 2.5 million, he added. A new minister of pilgrimage affairs took over this year.

Some 250 pilgrims died in a stampede during the stoning of three stone pillars which symbolise the devil at the Jamarat bridge on the third day of haj in January 2004.

Authorities say they have tightened health controls for this year's pilgrimage, which health experts have warned could create the conditions in which a fatal flu pandemic could emerge.