Carey in plea to Muslim leaders

Muslim leaders must condemn the beheading of Nick Berg, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey said today.

The peer was recently accused of "bigotry" after an address in Rome in which he said leading Islamic figures did not do enough to condemn suicide bombings.

Today he said: "The decapitation of that American is quite awful, barbaric. It needs to be condemned by everyone.

"I want to hear Muslim leaders around the world who I know repudiate that kind of action." Lord Carey was speaking before another lecture on relations between Christianity and Islam.

But he also told Radio 4's Today programme the build-up to war in Iraq and abuse of Iraqi prisoners had fuelled grievances in the Muslim world.

"I used the word ' barbaric' of the decapitation. I want to use the word 'shameful' for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners," he said. "It is deeply shameful and it indicts us in the West."