Women leave the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney following a prayer session
© AFP/File Greg Wood

SYDNEY (AFP) - "Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia," Rudd said over cleric Samir Abu Hamza's reported remarks in a sermon posted on the Internet.

"I would call upon this Islamic cleric to publicly apologise and repudiate his remarks," Rudd said.

The cleric said in his sermon, entitled "The keys to a successful marriage," that it was a man's right to demand sex from his wife whenever he felt like it, the Daily Telegraph reported.

"If the husband was to ask her for a sexual relationship and she is preparing the bread on the stove, she must leave it and come and respond to her husband, she must respond," Hamza was quoted as saying.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
© AFP/File Sonny Tumbelaka

He reportedly scorned Australian laws which make it an offence for a man to force his wife to have sex, saying: "Amazing, how can a person rape his wife?"

Hamza also said Islamic law allowed men to hit their wives as a last resort but should not bruise them or make them bleed, the paper reported.

Rudd said Australians would not accept any forms of violence against women, adding: "Nor are they acceptable in my view to mainstream Muslim teachings."

The Daily Telegraph said Hamza stood by his sermon, which was delivered in 2003 and posted to the Internet late last year.

A leading Islamic cleric, Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali, was replaced as Mufti of Australia in 2007 after creating a storm of protest when he described scantily-dressed women as "uncovered meat" inviting rape.

©AFP