Britain's most senior Anglican churchmen have delivered a harsh rebuke to Prime Minister Tony Blair over the behaviour of coalition troops in Iraq.
In a letter on behalf of all the Church of England's bishops, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York said the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners was "deeply damaging" and would harm the credibility and moral authority of Western governments.
"The apparent breach of international law in relation to the treatment of Iraqi detainees has been deeply damaging," they wrote in the letter printed in Wednesday's Times newspaper.
"The appearance of double standards inevitably diminishes the credibility of Western governments with the people of Iraq and of the Islamic world more generally."
A Downing Street spokesman confirmed the prime minister had received the letter, saying: "The archbishops are entitled to their views and the Prime Minister will reply in due course."
The United States is investigating a series of allegations of abuse, including sexual humiliation, of prisoners by the U.S. military in Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail. A series of gruesome photographs showing prisoners being humiliated and treated like dogs have been published in American and worldwide media.
Britain is also investigating alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees by its troops, including deaths of Iraqis in UK custody in the south of the country.
UK SHOCKED AT ABU GHRAIB ABUSE
In their letter, drawn up after a meeting of more than 100 archbishops and bishops last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Archbishop of York David Hope warned Blair the sense of "moral shock" at prisoner abuse was wearing off.
"More fundamentally still, there is a wider risk to our own integrity if we no longer experience a sense of moral shock at the enormity of what appears to have been inflicted on those who were in the custody of Western security forces," they wrote.
"The credibility of coalition partners in advocating respect for the law and the peaceful resolution of disputes will, we fear, be undermined unless the necessary moral authority is clearly demonstrated at every level."
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters he had "a very high regard" for the churchmen's views.
"Our horror and rejection of what happened in Abu Ghraib prison -- which is run by the United States, I may say, not the United Kingdom -- is no different and no less profound than that of the bishops," he added.
"But it is also worth drawing attention to the fact that it is as a result of the action that we have taken in respect of Iraq that the tyranny and barbarity of Saddam has been ended and that the mass graves are now part of Iraq's tragic history."
The bishops also expressed concern about the lack of progress in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned Blair that Britain's position as an "honest broker" between the two sides should not be jeopardised.