LONDON (AP):

The archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that the world should be putting pressure on Robert Mugabe to step down as president of Zimbabwe, but he questioned whether force was the answer.

Archbishop Rowan Williams said in a BBC radio interview that people in Zimbabwe are divided about whether Mugabe should be removed by force.

"I wouldn't oppose it in all circumstances but, I would take very seriously what people on the ground are saying there, and the Christians I speak to in our church there have very mixed feelings about the prospect of armed intervention," he said.

"A lot of people in Zimbabwe find themselves very torn on that because the last thing they want to see is another round of violence in Zimbabwe. That's the problem. I don't see a quick answer to that," Williams added.

A softer line

Williams took a softer line than that advocated by Archbishop of York John Sentamu. Sentamu has said it is time for Mugabe to be removed from power, and has spoken of the example of the late Kenyan President Julius Nyerere, who sent troops into Uganda in 1979 to topple Idi Amin.

Desmond Tutu, a retired Anglican archbishop, said the African Union and southern African nations have the military capacity to oust Mugabe.

"If they say to him, step down and he refuses, they must go in ... militarily," Tutu said earlier this month in an interview with a Dutch broadcaster.

Williams said the world should be pleading for Mugabe to step down, "and putting what pressure we can on him to go".

"We should be encouraging neighbouring states to put together a detailed reconstruction package for Zimbabwe. I think that is what is lacking in the present situation," he said.

US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have called this month for Zimbabwe's 84-year-old leader to go.