LONDON: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, on Friday warned British premier Tony Blair and US President Bush to tone down their moral rhetoric in the drive to war with Iraq.

The archbishop, who this week issued a joint statement with the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, doubting the moral basis for a war, told his first press conference at Lambeth Palace, his official London home, that the leaders should lay off “heavy artillery of a religious kind” in their speeches.

Both President Bush with his “axis of evil” soundbites and the British prime minister in his recent campaign to provide a moral justification for the conflict have become increasingly messianic in tone as they strive to persuade skeptical electorates, he said.

“There is no war that is holy and good in itself and to bring the heavy artillery of a religious kind, to say that is the only way of resisting evil, is something that has to be watched out for.”

Dr Williams insisted that other alternatives to war, including the maintenance of a UN presence in Iraq, had to be explored before military intervention. He refused to commit himself to supporting a war even with a second resolution.

“I think Christians generally would hold that unless other means of resolution had been exhausted, it would be hard to justify any pre-emptive [military] action. It does not look as if we have exhausted all the possibilities yet,” he said.

Dr Williams is to be enthroned as 104th archbishop at Canterbury Cathedral, on Feb 27 as the final stage of his appointment which began last July with the announcement that he had been chosen to succeed Dr George Carey. Dr Williams said he was in regular contact with Mr Blair but declined to give details of discussions . He knows he leads a church largely united in its opposition to war, in a wider religious community sharing similar views.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.