THE Archbishop of York has urged people not to give in to terrorism by becoming infected by fear and anxiety.

During his Easter Day address at York Minster yesterday, Dr Hope spoke of how the bombings in Madrid had stunned the nation.

He said the effects of the bombings knew no bounds, but urged people to get on with their lives, since not doing so would mean the terrorists had won.

He said: "The global village in which we now live means that an incident hundreds, even thousands of miles away, is in our own living rooms and becomes part of our lives within seconds of its happening.

"We all become infected by the anxiety, the fear, the unease, the tension which such acts generate.

"And yet life has to go on, life must go on, otherwise we have surely conceded victory to the terrorist."

Dr Hope said on Easter Sunday people were celebrating the triumph of the Resurrection, in stark contrast to the world today which was in "turmoil."

He said: "Today, the Church throughout the world - both eastern and western - celebrates the triumph of good over evil, of life over death.

"And yet what a contrast to the world we see and experience around us - a world in turmoil.

He said the Easter message was a challenge to the evil of terrorism and it was only negotiations which would solve any conflict.

He said: "No cause, however just it may seem to be, can ever justify the resort to such acts of destruction and death.

"Rather it can only be through a mutual readiness to engage in the painstaking processes of negotiation, of dialogue and debate - eschewing all the voices of extremism - which can only and will only in the end succeed in effecting a resolution of any conflict."

Updated: 10:09 Monday, April 12, 2004