Congruence properties in congruence permutable and in ideal determined varieties, with applications.

We define a weak version of EDPC (equationally definable principal congruences), called EDPC*, that is shown to be preserved under varietal closure in congruence permutable varieties. We show that if is a congruence permutable variety generated by a class then has EDPC iff has EDPC* iff has EDPC*. An equational condition is given which, if satisfied by implies that has the CEP (congruence extension property). Similar results are proved for ideal determined varieties. These results are applied to the variety of residuated lattices, with examples.Received January 15, 2004; accepted in final form October 8, 2004.