The Archbishop of Canterbury would be "very glad" to meet Donald Trump and try and "persuade him to change his views" if the US president came to the UK on a state visit.

Most Rev Justin Welby broke his silence on Trump's refugee ban on Thursday to say it would lead to "terrible results", warning the White House not to start "dissing" whole communities.

In a radio interview with LBC Welby lambasted the executive order that bans anyone from seven Muslim majority countries from entering the US.

"Policies based in fear rather than confidence and courage and the Christian values of hospitality, of love, of grace, of embrace rather than exclusion, are policies that will lead to terrible results.

"We have to say when you start dissing whole communities, when you start excluding them, when you start mixing up genuine threats to security with a dismissal of a whole range of communities out of fear, that is not good."

He appeared alongside the head of the UK Catholic Church, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who warned Trump's policy put Christians in the Middle East in even greater danger. 

"To identify a whole people, a whole nation or a whole religion as the enemy is a desperate road to go down," he said of Trump's so-called Muslim ban. 

"It gives the impression that Chrisianity belongs only in the West," he said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury would be invited to a banquet at Buckingham Palace if Trump was given the full honour of a state visit. But it has been unclear whether Welby would boycott the dinner in protest with Lambeth Palace declining to comment when asked by Christian Today.

But Welby, who has led efforts at conflict resolution between embittered Christian and Muslims in Nigeria, said his previous experience means he would be glad to meet the US president.

"You engage with people in order to persuade them of different views and change their views," he told LBC's Nick Ferrari.

"If I had the opportunity to engage with him and to debate with him I would consider it a great privilege to try and persuade him to change his views."

He said he would tell Trump his plans were "out of fear and needs to go back to the best of US history".

He added: "The US is such a fantastic country and has so much to be confident and be positive about.

"America is built on immigration and welcome, on courage and a sense of grace that has inspired the world.

"They don't need to act out of fear."

His comments came after Anglican leaders in the UK and the US joined in condemnation of the plans that indefinitely bar Syrians fleeing the civil war from entering the America and halts the country's entire refugee programme for 90 days.

Bishop James Mathes of San Diego was among a number of Church leaders from The Episcopal Church to speak out. He described the last nine days as "disquieting and dizzying display of presidential action in Mr Trump's first days in office".

He wrote: "The executive order is an affront to our sense of fairness and equity...President Trump's actions are unacceptable and un-American. They do not represent who we are as a people. We must recover our senses. It is time to speak out in the name of all faiths and our national identity as a people united in our diversity. That is our gift to the world."

In the UK the Archbishop of York, Rt Rev John Sentamu, also criticised the move and said it was "extraordinary" that any civilised country would ban anyone from receiving humanitarian protection.

"There is a valid question as to whether Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities in the Middle East have so far had adequate access to such protection," he said.

"However a blanket ban on any individual group is bound to undermine the fundamental principles of asylum. In Christ, we are called to welcome the stranger especially when in desperate need."