Pope tells Prodi to defend life,traditional family

VATICAN CITY, Oct 13 (Reuters) Pope Benedict reminded Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi that the Vatican strongly defends the traditional family and ethics in scientific research when they held their first official talks today.

Prodi, whose centre-left government took office last May, spoke privately with the Pope for about 40 minutes and later held separate talks with the Vatican's new secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

A Vatican statement said that at both meetings, particular attention was paid to topics that included ''bioethics (and) the defence of life and of the family''.

The Pope, elected 18 months ago, has strongly backed Italy's powerful Roman Catholic Church in its opposition to gay marriage and any formal recognition of unwed heterosexual couples.

The government headed by Prodi, a practising Catholic, will probably have to confront both issues sooner or later.

The coalition has promised some form of recognition for unmarried couples but has so far stopped short of openly supporting gay marriage as part of its programme.

But some leftist parties in the coalition, which ranges from Catholics to communists, back greater rights for homosexuals, including marriage.

Some in the centre left support a legal recognition similar to that in France, which in 1999 granted all couples the right to form civil unions, which entitle them to joint social security, limited inheritance rights and other benefits.

Italy's Catholic Church opposes this.

AT ODDS OVER BIOETHICS The Prodi government is already at odds with the Church over bioethical issues.

Last May Research Minister Fabio Mussi drew fire from the Church when he withdrew Italy's signature from a ''declaration of ethics'' which Italy and other countries had made in 2005 under the previous government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

That declaration objected to using EU funds for embryonic stem cell research and created a ''blocking minority'' on the release of EU money for some research projects.

Mussi said he had removed Rome's signature from the declaration because he felt Italy should not take ''a position of total closure to experimentation and research'' in Europe.

Human stem cells can develop into any cell type. Scientists believe they could be used as a repair system for many parts of the body.

Their use is controversial because the most promising stem cells for treating human diseases are derived from very early human embryos left over from fertility treatments.

The Roman Catholic Church opposes embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos.

In 2005, a referendum that had aimed to loosen up Italy's tight law on assisted procreation and embryo research failed after the Church campaigned against it.

The Vatican statement said Prodi and the Pope also discussed the Middle East, Italy's peacekeeping role in Lebanon, and dialogue among world religions.

REUTERS SP ND1906