Church leaders have given their New Year messages as the world greets 2007. The spiritual head of the 77-million member worldwide Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, has said that we need to feel the same hunger for justice that ended the slave trade if the world is to be changed for the better.

The head of the 1.1-billion member Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has also said that world peace can only be achieved if individuals' human rights are given full respect. Pope Benedict stressed that there can be no excuse for treating people as "objects".

Two days following the hanging of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein -- an event the Vatican condemned as "tragic" -- the Pope said on Monday that human rights must be put at the centre of the global struggle to end war.

In a homily at St Peter's Basilica, the pope said, "It is because every human individual, without distinction of race, culture or religion, is created in the image and likeness of God, that he is filled with the same dignity of person,"

He added: "That is why he must be respected. No reason can ever justify doing with him whatever one pleases, as if he is an object."