A FALSE GPWS WARNING CAUSED AN ACR MLG TO CLB FROM ITS DSCNT PATH.

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ON A CIVET 4 PROFILE DSCNT TO A RWY 25L ILS; WE RECEIVED A GPWS 'TERRAIN' WARNING. WE WERE APPROX 18 DME FROM LAX AT ABOUT 5500 FT MSL. FLT CONDITIONS WERE IMC WITH TURB AND RAIN. UPON RECEIVING THE GPWS WARNING; DSCNT WAS STOPPED AND A 300-400 FPM RATE OF CLB WAS ESTABLISHED. ATC WAS NOTIFIED THAT WE WERE DISCONTINUING THE DSCNT DUE TO A GPWS WARNING. LAX APCH CTL CONFIRMED OUR POS AND ALT SO WE REQUESTED TO CONTINUE THE APCH. I CALLED THE 'A' FLT ATTENDANT TO THE COCKPIT AND HAD HER CHK THE CABIN FOR ANYONE USING ANY ELECTRONIC DEVICES; NONE WERE FOUND. DURING ALL OF THE CONFUSION; GPWS WARNINGS AND FLT ATTENDANT IN THE COCKPIT; APCH CTL ASKED US TO LEVEL OFF AT 5000 FT AND TURN L TO A 220 DEG HDG. OUR DSCNT WAS NOT STOPPED UNTIL 4600 FT AND WE DID NOT CHANGE HDG UNTIL RECONFIRMING THE INSTRUCTIONS WITH ATC. I FIND IT VERY DISTURBING THAT A WARNING SYS LIKE THE GPWS CAN BE ALLOWED TO DISRUPT ATC AND COCKPIT COMS BECAUSE OF ITS LOUD VOLUME AND ITS INABILITY TO BE SHUT OFF. THE GPWS WARNING FINALLY STOPPED AFTER ABOUT 1 MIN.