Dr George Carey inserted an additional passage in his speech at the last minute to condemn the "evil of ethnic cleansing" which was leading to the "crucifixion" of Kosovo.

He said: "Military action thus far is recognition that the civilised world cannot stand idly by and accept that evil should triumph.

"It must surely be right that skills and energy of similar intensity are employed in saving and protecting the lives of helpless and vulnerable people."

His traditional address - which was last year interrupted by gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell - highlighted the problems of Kosovo and Northern Ireland in attacking hatred "all too evident in our world".

Dr Carey told the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral: "In Kosovo, in Indonesia and Iraq, in Northern Ireland a year after the Good Friday Agreement, in Sudan, Rwanda and Zaire the hatred continues and those whose trade is in continuing feuds and fostering violence have reaped a rich and deadly harvest."

He said: "In these dying months of the second millennium the world has not been immunised from evil.

'Man can't control himself'

"One result of the extraordinary development of modern science and technology has been a dramatic increase in our capacity to inflict even more horrifying evils upon one another and the fragile earth on which we depend."

The archbishop quoted Winston Churchill, who said: ''Man's control has extended over practically every sphere - except himself.''

Dr Carey said: "How can we fail to agree when we hear of a boy of 13 being tortured in Northern Ireland? Or when something like the inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder exposes before our reluctant gaze the ugliness of racism in our midst?

''And, of course, the darkness of evil is not limited to these islands - it extends throughout the human family and the world we inhabit."

He said Easter was about God's grace, active in forgiveness and renewing in mercy.

'Evil not limited to UK'

"The problem is, of course, that on Monday morning, tomorrow, the world will look just about the same as it did this Easter morning. Our world will still be wracked by bloodshed and conflict.

"Today we sing our Easter anthems but tomorrow violence, poverty, homelessness, greed, hatred, oppression and injustice will continue to plague our world."

Meanwhile the Archbishop of York called for people to be generous in their donations to the aid agencies working in Yugoslavia.

In his Easter sermon at York Minster, The Most Reverend David Hope conceded that the causes of the conflict are unlikely to be resolved easily.