Jack Straw: I can't read Rushdie

The Commons leader, whose Blackburn constituency has the highest proportion of Muslims in the UK, told MPs he understood the 'concerns and sensitivities' triggered by the award.

His intervention undermined the decision to approve the knighthood in the Queen's birthday honours list and could fuel calls for Downing Street to rescind it.

But while addressing the renewed Muslim backlash over the author, whose 1988 book The Satanic Verses was interpreted as blasphemous by many Muslims, Mr Straw also took the opportunity to pass literary judgment.

'I'm afraid I found his books rather difficult and I've never managed to get to the end of any of them, despite a basic rule I have which is if you start a book you have to finish it. I'm afraid his writing has defeated me,' he said.

Mr Straw was answering a question from Paul Rowen, LibDem MP for Rochdale, who said there was concern at the knighthood in the Muslim community and asked how the decision was made.

Mr Straw said: 'Of course I understand the concerns and sensitivity in the community. That said there can be no justification whatever for suggestions that as a result of this a further fatwa should be placed on the life of Mr Rushdie.'

His comments were markedly more conciliatory than those of Home Secretary John Reid, who refused on Wednesday to apologise on behalf of the Government despite protests across the Muslim world. In Pakistan traders have offered a reward of £90,000 for anyone who beheads Mr Rushdie.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Wednesday she was 'sorry' if the knighthood had caused offence but said Britain had been right to bestow it.

Government embarrassment deepened yesterday when a group of hardline Pakistani Muslim clerics bestowed an honour on Osama Bin Laden in direct response to the Rushdie knighthood.

The Pakistan Ulema Council gave the terrorist mastermind the title Saifullah, or Sword of Allah, their highest accolade.

Chairman Tahir Ashrafi said: 'If a blasphemer can be given the title "sir" by the West despite the fact he's hurt the feelings of Muslims, then a mujahid who has been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British must be given the lofty title of Islam, Saifullah.' The Pakistani minister who suggested the Rushdie award justified suicide bombing may visit Britain next month.

Religious affairs minister Mohammad Ejaz-ul-Haq claimed he could use the trip to London to help clear up 'misunderstandings' over his remarks.

A Foreign Office spokesman insisted that it had not extended an invitation to the minister but said there were was nothing to stop him paying a private visit.