First Terry Jones the Florida pastor who set the world on edge with plans to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11, said Thursday that he had canceled his demonstration because he had won a promise to move the proposed Islamic center near ground zero to a new location.
Then, hours later, after learning that the project’s leaders in New York had said that no such deal existed, Mr. Jones backed away from his promise and said the bonfire of sacred texts was simply “suspended.”
The sudden back and forth suggested that the controversy — the pastor drew pointed criticisms from President Obama and an array of leaders, officials and celebrities in the United States and abroad — was not yet finished even after multiple appearances before the news media on the lawn of his small church.
Mr. Jones seemed to be struggling with how to save face and hold on to the spotlight he has attracted for an act that could make him a widely reviled figure.
But Mr. Jones seemed to have been wrong or misled from the start.
Minutes after he announced the cancellation alongside Imam Muhammad Musri, a well-known Islamic leader in Florida who had been trying to broker a deal, Mr. Musri contradicted Mr. Jones’s account. He said that Muslim leaders of the project in New York had not actually agreed to find a new location. “The imam committed to meet with us but did not commit to moving the mosque yet,” Mr. Musri said.
Even that may not be accurate. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the New York project, said in a statement that he had not spoken to Mr. Jones or Mr. Musri, who said later that he received the pledge of a meeting from a staff member in Mr. Abdul Rauf’s office.
The saga of Mr. Jones appeared likely to continue — with more pressure likely to come as well. In just the past week, the list of his critics had come to include Mr. Obama, the Vatican, Franklin Graham, Angelina Jolie, Sarah Palin, dozens of members of Congress and Gen. David H. Petraeus, who was among the first to declare that the burning of Korans would put Americans soldiers and civilians in danger.
That risk of violence seemed to be rising, as large protests against Mr. Jones were staged over the past week in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Jakarta, Indonesia. It led the Obama administration to work furiously to end Mr. Jones’s plans.
On Thursday, F.B.I. officials met with Mr. Jones, and even Mr. Obama waded into the fray, sharply criticizing what he called a “stunt” that would be a “recruitment bonanza for Al Qaeda.”
“I just hope he understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans,” Mr. Obama said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He added that it could “greatly endanger our young men and women in uniform who are in Iraq, who are in Afghanistan.”
While Mr. Jones had told reporters that he would not “ignore” a call from the White House, administration officials decided that an appeal from the military would be more effective. The Obama administration also had to weigh the desire to stop Mr. Jones from proceeding with his plans against the recognition the once-obscure preacher, with a congregation of less than 50, would get from a direct appeal from the president.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called Mr. Jones around 4:15 p.m. Thursday, interrupting a meeting that Mr. Jones was having with Mr. Musri.
The call was brief, Mr. Jones said, adding that Mr. Gates was not the key factor in his decision. What swayed him, he said, was not the risk to Americans or foreigners but rather the promise that the Islamic center in New York would be moved.
“This is for us a sign from God,” he said.
As Mr. Jones walked back into his office, he said that the idea of the Islamic center as a bartering point came to him only after he had announced his “International Burn a Koran Day” in July. He said he had no regrets.
“We have accomplished what we think God asked us to do,” he said.
Those involved in the Islamic center project in New York offered contradictory stances and opinions on Thursday, making it hard to determine if the parties involved had a common front.
In a brief interview on Thursday, minutes before Mr. Jones made his cancellation announcement, Mr. Abdul Rauf, the imam, seemed to suggest that moving the project — at least the part of it that he is to lead, which includes a mosque, prayer spaces for other faiths and tolerance education programs — was not out of the question.
When asked — without reference to Mr. Jones — whether the comments he made on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Wednesday night, that he would not have proposed the project had he known how much strife it would cause, indicated a new openness to moving or some other compromise, he said, “We are investigating that right now, we are discussing it right now, how we can resolve this issue in a manner that will defuse the rhetoric and the pain and also reduce the risk” of emboldening Muslim radicals.
He added: “That is the question we are now asking ourselves. We are weighing various options.”
But the imam controls only one part of the project, known as Cordoba House, the interfaith and Muslim prayer spaces and tolerance programs that are planned as part of the larger community center, known as Park51.