The Feb. 18 declaration by the U.S. church leaders was written as a letter and read during a media conference at the WCC's Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

In it, the U.S. Conference for the World Council of Churches accused the United States of "raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors."

Troops were powerless to resist the mobs. Revenge attacks were also reported in another south-eastern city, Enugu, where the Red Cross said at least seven people were killed and 150 injured. At least 73 people have been killed in the past five days.

The Christian retaliation came after a widely publicised statement by the powerful Anglican primate, Peter Akinola, who warned that community leaders may not be able to contain "restive youth".

The Episcopal Church of the United States has for many years made it mandatory that all clergy (and any church staff) that have contact with minors be trained in Sexual Misconduct and give proof of that training before they are eligible for any posts within the Episcopal Church. Providing leadership in this area has caused many other denominations to do the same.

"The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that's a clear victory.

"It's confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call 'adverse consequences' - violence to the rest of us - then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent."