The head of Britain's leading Muslim organisation said that an apology from one of the country's most popular TV talk show hosts for making inflammatory remarks against Arabs did not go far enough. Robert Kilroy-Silk, whose show is broadcast by BBC television, wrote a commentary in Britain's Sunday Express paper published on January 4 in which he lambasted Arabs as "suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors." He later apologised. But Iqbal Sacranie, head of the British Muslim Council which groups 350 Muslim associations, told BBC radio on Saturday: "I think he has basically regretted some of the statements in the article but he has not made a full apology." "The article itself I think is of racist nature and it is only appropriate that there should be a full apology so the matter can then rest and hopefully not be repeated again," he said. Kilroy-Silk had been withering in his assessment of Arabs and Arab states. "We're told that the Arabs loathe us. Really?... What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they murdered more than 3,000 civilians on September 11 and then danced in the hot, dusty streets to celebrate the murders? "That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women-repressors?" "Indeed, apart from oil -- which was discovered, is produced and paid for by the West -- what do they (Arab states) contribute? He apologized on Friday for his comments, saying they had been taken out of context. "I greatly regret the offence which has been caused by the article published in last weekend's Sunday Express," he said. In his apology, Kilroy-Silk said he had originally written the commentary -- published first in April 2003 -- "as a response to the views of opponents to the war in Iraq that Arab States 'loathe' the West and my piece referred to 'Arab States' rather than 'Arabs'. "Out of that context, it has obviously caused great distress and offence and I can only reiterate that I very deeply regret that," he said. He added that the Sunday Express had republished the article last Sunday in error, and that it had caused "no comment or outcry" when it first appeared nine months ago at the height of the Iraq war. His comments, which also said few Arab countries made "much contribution to the welfare of the rest of the world," provoked a storm of outrage in Britain and prompted the BBC to suspend his highly-rated morning television show. "We stress that these comments do not reflect the views of the BBC," the public broadcaster said in a statement. "The BBC is taking the Kilroy programme off air immediately while we investigate this matter fully." The tabloid Sunday Express meanwhile leapt to the TV host's defense. "The article was not racist. It was legalled by lawyers and there is absolutely no case to answer," the paper said in a statement quoted Saturday by its daily counterpart Daily Express. The chairman of Britain's Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, labelled the comments by the former member of parliament for the ruling Labour Party "indisputably stupid". The Independent newspaper meanwhile headlined its article on the matter "Kilroy Was Here," a reference to the World War II US slogan coined after James Kilroy, a shipyard inspector who scrawled the phrase on boat hulls he had inspected. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Robert Kilroy-Silk.