London - The two most senior figures in the Church of England have condemned the behaviour of financial traders in the recent market turmoil, branding them as "bank robbers and asset strippers."

In an article for the Spectator magazine, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams questioned the value to society of men and women who "buy and sell debt solely for their own profit."

In the article, due to be published in the magazine on Friday, Williams attacks "unbridled capitalism" and defends the socialist theorist Karl Marx's critiques of the system.

He said it had become - much as Marx suggested - "a kind of mythology" in which people invested their faith, wrongly assuming it would work for the common good.

The remarks followed comments by Williams' deputy, Archbishop of York John Sentamu, who in a speech described traders as "bank robbers and asset strippers."

Sentamu told bankers the market system seems to have taken rules "from Alice in Wonderland."

He criticized the contrast between the US government's planned bank bail-out and the lack of funding for efforts to reduce poverty. (dpa)