Imams are being urged to register mosques as wedding venues

Imams will discuss issues including forced marriages and so-called "honour killings".

The event in Manchester has been organised by the self-styled Muslim Parliament of Britain.

Its leader, Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, said they hoped to make some progress in solving long-standing problems.

"We want to highlight the problems these issues are causing in society," Dr Siddiqui said.

"We know that some 70% of forced marriages end up in divorce and of course there is also domestic violence and of course murder of individuals as well."

Mosques as venues

The conference would particularly focus on regulating Islamic marriages which are not recognised by British law unless a civil marriage has also taken place, Dr Siddiqui told BBC News Online.

He said he knew of a growing number of cases of women who had lost their home and been denied a share of the marital assets because their marriage had never been registered according to British law.

The emphasis would be on persuading imams to register their mosques as venues for civil weddings so that Islamic marriages performed there would be valid under British law, he added.

"Our feeling is that if most mosques become registered for civil marriage, then the civil and Islamic marriage will take place at the same time.