A leading United Synagogue rabbi was a guest speaker at the launch of an exhibition on Islam at London's flagship mosque.

Dayan Isaac Binstock, a member of the London Beth Din and senior rabbi of St John's Wood Synagogue, participated in last Thursday's opening of Exhibition Islam at the London Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, Regent's Park.

He sits on the Council of Imams and Rabbis, a forum for senior religious leaders of mosques and synagogue set up last autumn by the Joseph Interfaith Foundation.

The council has just concluded a pioneering six-part introductory course on Judaism for imams, which has taken place alternatively at synagogues and mosques over the past three months.

Sessions were led by rabbis from across the spectrum and attracted an average of eight imams.

The programme - "the first of its kind in Britain", according to a foundation spokesman - will continue in autumn.