Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has called a proposed 9/11 anniversary burning of the Koran by a Florida pastor as insensitive and unnecessary.

Criticizing Pastor Terry Jones in a Facebook noting, the New York Post quoted Palin as saying that his step would be "antithetical to American ideals."

"Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation - much like building a mosque at Ground Zero," Palin said on the social networking site.

"It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don't feed that fire. If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive," she added.

Reverend Terry Jones, the pastor at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. has said he plans to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center with a mass Koran burning.

On Wednesday, Jones held a press conference where he stated that despite mounting pressure and opposition, he has "no intention of canceling" Saturday's event.

Palin and many other prominent Republican leaders have said that while they believe in developers' rights to build a mosque and cultural center two blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center, it should be moved to another location out of respect for the victims' families. (ANI)