GAINESVILLE, Florida - The Florida pastor at the centre of an international firestorm for threatening to burn the Koran on September 11 said Friday he and his church have "plans not to do it."

Radical evangelist Terry Jones first announced on Thursday he had scrapped Saturday's mass immolation of the Muslim holy book after a day of high-stakes religious brinkmanship.

But when his claims that a deal had been struck to relocate a proposed Islamic cultural center in New York dissolved in acrimony, he threatened to go ahead with the event to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States.

"Right now, we have plans not to do it," Jones said in an interview with ABC News Friday.