Communities Secretary Hazel Blears yesterday launched a consultation with faith leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, to find ways of strengthening communities through inter-faith dialogue and interaction.

The "Face-to-Face and Side-by-Side" consultation will also look at how the Government can better support the work that faith groups are already doing to enhance their local communities.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams joined Ms Blears, Cohesion Minister Parmjit Dhanda and more than two hundred faith community representatives at the Monday launch of the consultation, which will run until 7 March 2008.

The Government hopes to build on the increase in dialogue in recent years between Britain's different faith communities, and the substantial inroads that have already been made in breaking down barriers and building understanding.

The consultation follows the report from the independent Commission on Integration and Cohesion, "Our Shared Future", which affirmed the important role of strong inter-faith activity in building integration and cohesion in the community.

Ms Blears said: "Faith groups are a key part of the way we respond to the challenges we face from building strong resilient communities to tackling anti-social behaviour.

"By learning how we can all better work in partnership with each other to increase inter-faith dialogue and social action we can ensure that [inter-faith] activity results in tangible and positive change within local communities in terms of increased cohesion, greater community empowerment and resilience to extremism in all its forms."