ROME, Dec 27: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the Vatican was the intended target of a Christmas Day hijacked plane attack, sparking embarrassed reactions in Rome.

“What a terrible day... I can tell you that we had specific and verified information about a Christmas Day attack on Rome,” the daily Libero quoted Mr Berlusconi as telling a journalist who spent part of Christmas eve at one of the prime minister’s residences.

“A plane diverted onto the Vatican. An attack from the sky, you see? The threat of terrorism is very high at the moment.”

“I spent the day in Rome to tackle the situation. Now I feel easier, it will pass,” Mr Berlusconi told the reporter on the evening of December 24.

Mr Berlusconi’s office issued a terse statement on Saturday, denying that the prime minister had granted an interview to Libero’s reporter, Renato Farina.

“Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did not give an interview. You cannot confuse a Christmas greeting given in passing with a political declaration,” the text said, although it did not deny the substance of the report.

The prime minister’s office said it had nothing to add.

Mr Berlusconi himself dismissed the report as “flour (farina in Italian) from Farina’s bag” — a pun on the journalist’s name — in remarks quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA.

The Vatican refused to confirm or deny the report.

“As in all cases of real of presumed information about security matters, I have no comment to add,” said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

Pope John Paul had spoken out against the “scourge of terrorism” and other forms of violence in his Christmas Day message from St Peter’s Square, addressing tens of thousands of pilgrims who make the trip every year to hear his address.

However, the left-wing mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, appeared to indirectly confirm the information.

“Many of us were working on the afternoon of Dec 24, but did not feel the need to reveal things that were kept quiet precisely to prevent spreading panic,” he told ANSA.

The daily Libero stood by its report, saying it “confirmed everything that had been written” and that the conversation had taken the form of an interview. —AFP