LONDON -- Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday, according to a report of the Sunday Times.

In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, Rowan Williams, the Anglican leader, claimed that America's attempt to interveneoverseas by "clearing the decks" with a "quick burst of violent action" had led to "the worst of all worlds", the report said.

Williams went beyond his previous critique of the conduct of the war on terror, saying the United States had lost the moral high ground since September 11, 2001.

He went on to suggest that the West was fundamentally adrift: "Our modern western definition of humanity is clearly not working very well", the paper said. "There is something about western modernity which really does eat away at the soul."

Williams suggested American leadership had broken down: "We have only one global hegemonic power", it said. "It is not accumulating territory: it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That is not working."