Archbishop of Canterbury: I am extremely optimistic

The Church of England's ruling general synod has voted to restart work on allowing women to become bishops.

Delegates voted by 319 to 84 to move forward on a new draft law, although this is not expected to get final approval until July or November 2015.

Previous attempts at creating similar legislation have been thrown out because of internal disagreements.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said he remained "extremely optimistic" agreement could be reached.

The last attempt to introduce women bishops was narrowly defeated at a synod meeting in November.