Archbishop of Canterbury defends comments

LONDON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury took responsibility Monday for any misleading choice of words he may have used when remarking on Sharia law.

Dr. Rowan Williams defended his controversial remarks on Islamic law, or Sharia, saying he did not mean to cause distress or misunderstanding among the public, The Guardian reported Monday.

Williams used his presidential address to the General Synod, the Church of England's national assembly, in London to take responsibility for "unclarity" that may have caused "distress or misunderstanding" among the public, especially his fellow Christians.

But while he spoke of his assertion that adopting certain aspects of Islamic law seemed "unavoidable," he did not make the full apology critics had demanded.

He was not proposing, he said, to introduce Sharia as a "parallel jurisdiction" and insisted there could be no "blank checks" regarding the status of women and their liberties.