LONDON, Feb 7 The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams introduced a new dimension to the on going debate here on how best to assimilate Muslims in the British society without the two losing their cultural identity when he said on Thursday, the introduction of sharia law for British Muslims was “unavoidable”.

Rowan Williams told BBC Radio 4's World at One that Muslims should be able to choose whether to have matters such as marital disputes dealt with under sharia law or the British legal system.

Downing Street has immediately distanced Gordon Brown from the Archbishop's belief. The prime minister's spokesman said Mr Brown “believes that British laws should be based on British values”.

Archbishop's comments were strongly criticised by the National Secular Society but welcomed by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which stressed it did not back the introduction of sharia criminal law.

Willams said giving sharia official status in the UK would help maintain social cohesion because some Muslims do not relate to the British legal system.

Its introduction would mean Muslims would no longer have to choose between “the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty”.

According to the Guardian on Thursday Williams said his proposal would only work if sharia law was properly understood, rather than seen through the eyes of biased media reports.

The archbishop said he was not proposing the adoption of extreme interpretations of sharia law practiced in some repressive regimes.

He said “It seems unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, certain conditions of sharia are already recognised in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system.

A spokesman for the MCB said many UK Muslims already used sharia law in aspects of their day-to-day lives, such as banking and marriage, and the same principle of separate laws could “easily be accepted for other faiths groups”.

He said introducing sharia law for marriages would combat the problem of forced marriage because Islam required the consent of both parties.

The National Secular Society said it was another example of Britain “sleepwalking to segregation”.

“Our view is simple. You can't have a country where you have separate laws for separate faith groups,” it said. “The same religious groups who are calling for integration are the same one who want segregation.”