MOSCOW. Oct 10 (Interfax) - In 50 years Islam may become the predominant religion in Russia, presidential envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference Venaymin Popov has said.

"Almost 20 million Muslims live in Russia today. In 20 years they will exceed one third of the population and by the middle of the century Muslims may outnumber all other groups of believers," he told a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

Popov said his conclusions were based on current demographic tendencies and should be close to the truth.

Asked about the reasons for such a rapid growth of the Muslim community in Russia Popov said: "The number of Russians is shrinking while in the traditional Muslim regions birth rates are different."

He described the decline in the share of indigenous population in European countries as "inevitable", saying that "in two to three generations Europeans will become a minority in Europe."

Popov predicted that the next five to ten years will become years of very acute confrontation between the Muslim and Western world in international politics. In his opinion, the number of conflicts as such the Middle East crisis, the war in Iraq, and Somalia, will only increase in the next few years.