AFP - The birth rate among Israel's Muslim Arab minority has fallen by a quarter since 2000, official figures showed on Friday.

The annual birth rate fell from 3.8 percent in 2000 to 2.8 percent at the end of 2008, according to the figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics released on the occasion of the Muslim Eid Al-Adha holiday.

In 2008, Israel had a Muslim population of 1.24 million, including 256,000 Muslim Palestinians living in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

In the Israeli population of 7.5 million, there were 5,570,000 Jews -- 75.5 percent of the total and 1,490,OOO Arabs, including Christians -- 20.2 percent.

The relative birth rates of Jews and Muslims is a sensitive issue in Israel as it vies to remain a Jewish and democratic state.

The Kadima party of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni broke with the main right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of a conviction that Israel could