THE Archbishop of Canterbury arrived in the Gulf yesterday, but will be keeping a determinedly low profile.

Dr Rowan Williams, who was at the forefront of the anti-war movement, has no plans to visit British troops or even to mention the war. The Archbishop is one of 28 theologians and religious leaders meeting for a three-day “Building Bridges” conference.

A spokesman from Lambeth Palace said that the Archbishop had flown to the Middle East solely for his longstanding “intellectual engagement” with other Christian and Muslim leaders. He said that it was “highly unlikely” that Dr Williams would have the time to visit British troops. The nearest British forces are working at US Central Command, a 20-minute taxi ride from the Ritz-Carlton across the city of Doha. He was unlikely to make any public comments about the war in Iraq, which he condemned as “illegal and immoral” last year.

Dr Williams last night attended a service and blessed a stone to be put in a new Christian church, the first to be built in Qatar since the 7th century. Today Dr Williams will at most make an oblique reference to the conflict in his six-minute opening address to delegates, who include Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, and Dr Zaki Badawi, the head of the British Council of Imams and Mosques.

The Archbishop has toned down his opposition to the war, most notably in a letter to Anglican military chaplains serving in the Gulf and Iraq, in which he praised the “courage and dedication” of the British forces and the “honourable tradition of Christians bearing witness to the love of Christ in hard and dangerous places”.

It is feared that any further comments on the war would distract from the more esoteric purpose of the conference, at which Dr Williams and other scholars of the Bible and Koran will wrestle with Scripture and explore the theological parallels between the faiths.

The opulence of the Ritz-Carlton, a 374-bedroom hotel with Roman baths, seven spa rooms and a private beach, is a sanctuary from the political turbulence that normally surrounds Dr Williams and a world away from the turmoil and terror in Iraq. A king-sized room with a balcony and views of the waters of the Gulf costs 1,050QR (£188) a night.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, invited the guests and is meeting all the costs of the conference.

• The Pope called for a quick end to the war against Iraq and said that he was praying for the Iraqi people.

  “I think above all of the defenceless civilian population, which is being severely tested in several cities,” he said during Sunday prayers.

  “May God end this conflict rapidly to be replaced by a new era of forgiveness, love and peace.”

  The Pope, who will be 83 next month, said that peace was a “permanent commitment”, as current events were demonstrating.

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