Just over a month ago the ASA ruled that an advert against homosexuality from Sandown Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast was indecent and should not be run again.

The church placed the advert in the News Letter in August 2008 to call for a peaceful counter protest to the Gay Pride Parade.

The advert cited several biblical texts against homosexuality and prompted seven complaints to the authority.

Minister of the church the Rev David McIlveen said that Dr Paisley's meeting, which took place before Christmas, was a preliminary event and would be followed soon by a more substantial meeting.

"Dr Paisley met the ASA more in his role as a parliamentarian rather than as a former moderator of the church," said Mr McIlveen.

"It was really a face-to-face opportunity for him to request a more in-depth meeting.

"A second meeting was scheduled to take place next week but will be postponed until an independent appeal of the ASA decision is completed."

Mr McIlveen said the ruling that his church's advert was indecent illustrated "double standards" from the ASA.

"We are amazed the ASA accepts sexually explicit adverts in daily national newspapers as decent and yet at the same time rules that an advert with Bible texts in it is indecent," he said.

"These double standards underline the fact that their ruling was flawed with prejudice and formed in presumption."

He highlighted newspaper adverts for adult chat lines which include sexually suggestive photographs and text as one example of concern.

A spokeswoman for the ASA said they do not get many complaints about sexually explicit advertising in newspapers but that they were willing to consider any complaints the church wished to make.

She said it might be expected that newspapers aimed at adults would carry a certain level of such advertising and that a different standard was to be expected in tabloid newspapers as compared to broadsheets.

"You could say that if adverts are more decent than the editorial then they are acceptable, but that is not the only standard," she said.

The authority does not have an objective standard of decency but its council considers each individual complaint depending on factors such as context and likely audience, she said.