Christians are fleeing Iraq and Christianity risks disappearing from the country, says a senior Baghdad archbishop, reiterating appeals made recently to Western churches to intercede with their governments about the Iraqis' plight.

A Baghdad-based British Anglican priest has told a US news network that Christians are considerably worse off now than they were during the regime of the late Saddam Hussein, Iraq's former dictator, whose deposition he welcomed.

I have been travelling in the Philippines where news of increased troop levels and warfare in Iraq reaches us. Although it has been many months since I was in Baghdad, where I listened to the stories of detainees, I have a clear image of the increased burden of violence. I imagine with horror the columns of military vehicles weaving their way in narrow streets where homes and storefronts of my friends' neighbourhoods abound.

The head of the leading US ecumenical body, the National Council of Churches USA, has described the call for more troops to be sent to Iraq as "morally unsupportable".