Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of more than 75 million Anglicans worldwide, triggered a sharp reaction with an interview with British Broadcasting radio, saying that the implementation of Syariah law in Britain was an inevitable part of achieving social cohesion.

Williams suggested that Syariah might have a role in aspects of marital law, regulating financial transactions and resolving conflicts.

The comments on radio and in a lengthy lecture to a legal society later on Thursday delighted some Muslims, but outraged many other people in Britain, including a few members of the General Synod, the church's governing body, who have called for Mr Williams' resignation.

The archbishop will speak on Monday at a regularly scheduled meeting of the synod in London, and his spokeswoman, Maria Papworth, said he would discuss the debate over Syariah law.

While Mr Williams has been supported by other senior bishops, much of the media reaction has been poisonous, with headlines accusing him of everything from cowardice to tacit support for Islamic terror.

Some editorialists have called for him to resign, but Papworth said on Sunday that he would not do that.

Mr Williams has kept a low profile since the BBC interview, given before a lecture on civil and religious law.

But in a statement posted on his Web site, he rejected suggestions he had endorsed the implementation of Syariah law as a kind of parallel Muslim legal system, saying his aim was to raise the broader issue of how to work religious rights within a secular society. He said he 'certainly did not call for its introduction as some kind of parallel jurisdiction to the civil law.'

But criticism of his comments continued to mount over the weekend.

'He has in my opinion overstated the case for accommodating Islamic legal codes,' Williams? predecessor, Lord George Carey, wrote in the News of the World.

'His conclusion that Britain will eventually have to concede some place in law for aspects of Syariah is a view I cannot share.'

But Mr Carey also defended Mr Williams, saying: 'This is not a matter upon which Dr Williams should resign. He is a great leader in the Anglican tradition and he has a very important role to play in the church.'

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, was quoted as telling the Sunday Telegraph: 'When people come into this country they have to obey the laws of the land.'

'There are aspects of Syariah that are practiced that we certainly wouldn?t want in this country. The laws of this country don't allow forced marriages or polygamy.' -- AP