Australia's most senior Muslim cleric has triggered international outrage for describing women who dress immodestly as "uncovered meat" who are inviting a sexual attack.

Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali - the Mufti of Australia - condemned women who "sway suggestively", wear make-up and no hijab or Islamic headscarf, in a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers, The Australian reported.

Islamic leaders are today meeting in Sydney to discuss his future and are considering whether to sack him from his role as the most senior cleric at the city's largest mosque.

John Howard, the Prime Minister, said that the cleric's comments were "appalling and reprehensible".

He told reporters: The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous. I not only reject the comments, I condemn them unconditionally."

Mr al-Hilali, who arrived in Australia in 1982 from Lebanon on a tourist visa and later fought attempts to deport him, has triggered controversies in the past.

In 2004 he said in a sermon in Lebanon that the September 11 attacks were "God's work against the oppressors." The cleric later said that he did not mean that he supported the attacks, or terrorism.

Race relations in Sydney are volatile following riots between the white and Middle Eastern youths last December. As summer arrives the city's authorities fear that troubles may explode again and police have begun patrolling the area where the riots took place.

In a statement today, the outspoken cleric apologised for his comments and said: "I had only intended to protect women's honour, something lost in The Australian presentation of my talk."

He was reported in the newspaper as saying that he only meant to refer to prostitutes as meat, and not any woman who does not wear a hijab, but the paper said there was no mention of the word prostitute in the sermon.

A spokesman for the Egyptian-born cleric said that his comments, made last month, had been taken out of context in the newspaper report, but did not challenge the accuracy of the paper's translation.

During the sermon al Hilali said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat?

"The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

The Australian also reported that he said that women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men.

Pru Goward, Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, said that Mr al-Hilali had a history of making such comments and should be thrown out of the country.

"It is incitement to a crime. Young Muslim men who now rape women can cite this in court, can quote this man, their leader in court," she told Australian television.

"It's time we stopped just saying he should apologise. It is time the Islamic community did more then say they were horrified. I think it's time he was asked to go."

Islamic groups have tried to disassociate themselves from Mr al-Hilali's remarks. The Islamic Council of New South Wales said his comments were "un-Islamic, un-Australian and unacceptable".

Waleed Aly, a member of the Islamic Council of Victoria state, said that the comments would result in more antagonism toward Muslims.

"I am expecting a deluge of hate mail. I am expecting people to get abused in the street and get abused at work," he said.

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