YORK Muslim leaders have backed a national agreement to tackle the extremism which led to the London bombings.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said a Downing Street meeting of 25 Muslim community leaders had agreed to deal "head-on" with the extremism, based on a perversion of Islam, which could lead to terrorism.

The Government is looking at strengthening the law to deal with people who incite hatred and terrorist violence.

He said there would be a network of people prepared to take on arguments within the Muslim community and confront "this evil ideology and defeat it by the force of reason".

Dr Shujja Din, chairman of the York Muslim Association, said he supported such an agreement, although extremism of this kind was not a problem in York.

He said Muslims in York had been shocked by both the bombings and the later revelations that the perpetrators were suicide bombers from Yorkshire.

He said: "We totally condemn the attacks. It was unbelievable."

Dr Din said Islam was a religion of peace, under which "if you kill one human being, you kill humanity".

Association secretary Aziz Karvani said York Police, who warned last week against anyone attempting reprisals for the bombing, had visited the association and been "very helpful".

He said he was not aware of any abuse or attacks on Muslims in York since the bombings.

Chief Superintendent Tim Madgwick, who recently reassured Muslims that any racial intimidation or abuse in the wake of the bombings would not be tolerated, has spoken of the "excellent" response of York residents.

He said: "People have been pulling together very positively. We have had just one or two minor incidents of verbal abuse, which is probably no worse than for a normal week. So far, the response has been excellent."

He said one of the incidents had involved "kids", while another matter, which police had thought at first might be racially motivated, had turned out to be a domestic incident.

Updated: 09:56 Wednesday, July 20, 2005