Daisy Khan, the executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, said yesterday that she and her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, two co-founders whose involvement in the controversial community center plan was curtailed this year after a falling out with their real estate partner, might develop a new project that was "larger in concept" than what is now proposed at 51 Park Place, according to an article by Paul Vitello in today's edition of The New York Times.

The"two co-founders of the plan to build a Muslim community center and mosque in downtown Manhattan have begun exploring a new, and possibly competing, project: an interfaith cultural center that they said might be located at the currently proposed site, two blocks from ground zero, or elsewhere in the neighborhood," the article said.

"The new project would be interfaith in character, rather than predominantly Islamic, she said, and it would include a center for inter-religious conflict resolution. Ms. Khan's comments, made at a luncheon held by the women's magazine More and attended by reporters, were the first in which the couple indicated a willingness to put their names behind a different religious mission in the city," the article said.

"'Once we are ready to announce our new vision, we will talk to the property owner and see if it is the right location for us,' she said, referring to Sharif el-Gamal, the real estate developer and onetime protege of Mr. Abul Rauf's. Mr. Gamal announced in January that Ms. Khan and the imam, who first conceived the idea of a downtown Muslim community center, would no longer speak or raise money for the planned project, known as Park51, though the imam would remain on its board of directors. 'We had the vision. We still have the dream,' Ms. Khan said. 'The location is not the dream, my friend,'" the article said, adding that "a spokesman for Mr. Gamal said the developer had no comment."

"Whether either alternative comes to fruition will depend on the ability of each camp to raise the estimated $100 million in public and private funds needed. Since plans for Park51 were announced last summer, and drew angry protests from some politicians and families of 9/11 victims who considered it insensitive to build a Muslim center so close to ground zero, no management staff has been hired, no members have been named to the project's board and no money has been raised," the article said.

The article noted that Park51 was registered as a charitable organization with the state attorney general's office, "But its application to the Internal Revenue Service for designation as a tax-exempt organization - crucial to its ability to solicit tax-deductible donations - has been under review for six months without a decision."