The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, says greed is the root cause of the current economic crisis and he has called on Christians and Muslims to work together to decide upon a fairer system of borrowing and lending.

"The Christian tradition has always been cautious about interest and for many centuries it was very much of one mind with the Islamic tradition, but after the 16th century that changed," Williams, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said at a media conference in London, following a three-day meeting in Cambridge of Christian and Muslim scholars and clerics.

Dr Williams said, "I would like very much to see a dialogue developing with Islam about this question of what a just, a reasonable rate of interest might look like in the light of a religious ethic, but this work is very much in its infancy."