ROME, Nov 27 (AFP) - Maverick Italian politician Marco Pannella on Monday

called for the Vatican's more than 70-year-old status as a separate

country to be abolished as Catholicism was the only religion to be granted

a sovereign state.

Pannella's appeal came nine days after European deputies of three Dutch

parties launched a campaign demanding that the European Union sever all

diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

The deputies argue that the Vatican wields too much political power

compared to other religions, blocking decision-making in international

organizations on issues such as AIDS prevention and women's rights.

The Vatican does not represent any people, and should not be able to force

the United Nations into policy concessions on women and youth.

The first Italian politician to come out in favor of abolishing the Roman

Catholic Church's temporal powers, Pannella said on private Radio Radical

he was backing a campaign to change this status, notably at the United

Nations.

The campaign has been initiated by the See Change movement which wants the

church's current status as a Non-member State Permanent Observer reviewed.

See Change argues that the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic

Church, should participate in the United Nations as the world's other

religions do -- as a nongovernmental organization.

"Not even at Mecca, the church is a state, even though some Islamic

countries are confessional countries," said Pannella, 70. "It is about

time that we too start reforms to immediately disband and convert the

Vatican City State."

The 44-hectare (109-acre) Vatican City State around Saint Peter's Basilica

on the right bank of the Tiber river in Rome, was created in 1929 under

the terms of the Lateran treaties with the Italian Fascist government of

Benito Mussolini.

The so-called Concordat recognised its sovereignty and granted Roman

Catholicism special status in Italy. It was amended by the government of

the late prime minister Bettino Craxi, a socialist, in 1984.

Pannella said the Dutch move was a reminder that the Vatican was "using

the holy water sprinkler to bless the baton ... against science,

conscience, democracy and tolerance, if not worse: against the lives of

millions of people."

The politician is one of the founders of the small Radical party which has

former EU commissioner Emma Bonino among its members.

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