Berlusconi's crass joke angers Vatican

By Jessie Grimond in Rome

A joke by the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, at the expense of drowned African immigrants, has fallen flat, prompting outrage from the Vatican and opposition politicians.

In response to questions as to why only human-powered "pedalo" boats had been used to gather the bodies of immigrants who drowned earlier this month off the coast of Sicily, Mr Berlusconi said: "For gathering corpses, pedalos are fine. I don't believe there were any complaints."

About 36 immigrants, all from Liberia, are thought to have died in the shipwreck on 15 September near Agrigento. Italians were shocked when newspapers printed photographs of the police setting out in pedalos to collect the floating bodies.

The remarks, described as "macabre, grotesque," and "worthy of a drunken hooligan" by members of the opposition, also drew criticism from the Vatican. In an editorial, its newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano wrote that "quips are not only out of place but become macabre, in bad taste and even offensive. It is inconceivable to joke about the dead."