Amman - The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said Saturday that he was extremely worried about the shrinking number of Christians in the Middle East, and urged Christians in Britain to come to the aid of their brethren in the region.

"The departure of Christians from the region represents a source of extreme concern for us," the spiritual leader of the world's Anglican communion said in an interview with the official Petra news agency. "We always put up this issue to the British government, but it appears that this question is not among its priorities," he added.

Williams, who arrived in Jordan on Friday on the first stop of his four-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land, on Saturday held a sermon for hundreds of Christians at the baptism site of Jesus Christ, east of the Jordan River, and laid the cornerstone of an Anglican church there. He was scheduled to travel to Jerusalem on Sunday and is expected to visit the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Williams said that the Anglican Church "cannot do anything to Christians in the region beyond encouraging Christians in Britain to come to the region and get in touch with its Christians and extend support to them."Christians in Jordan are estimated to number about 200,000, or 5 per cent of the population