Absolute Retracts and Essential Extensions in Congruence Modular   Varieties
  This paper studies absolute retracts in congruence modular varieties of universal algebras. It is shown that every absolute retract with finite dimensional congruence lattice is a product of subdirectly irreducible algebras. Further, every absolute retract in a residually small variety is the product of an abelian algebra and a centerless algebra. 
Peter Ouwehand
math.RA