PARIS, Dec 31: Too many Muslim countries treat their Christian minorities as second-class citizens and bar them from building churches while Western states let their Muslims build mosques freely, a senior Vatican official alleged on Wednesday.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who recently retired as the Vatican's foreign minister, said in an interview with French Catholic daily La Croix that Christianity and Islam faced "an enormous task" of learning to live together in mutual tolerance.

Cardinal Tauran was the latest and highest-ranking Catholic official to voice concern about Vatican relations with Muslims, an issue seen as central for whoever succeeds the ailing Pope John Paul.

"There are too many majority Muslim countries where non-Muslims are second-class citizens," said the cardinal, the church's top diplomat for 13 years before he had to step aside on being made a cardinal by Pope John Paul in October.

Stressing the need for respect for minorities, he singled out "the extreme case of Saudi Arabia, where freedom of religion is violated absolutely - no Christian churches and a ban on celebrating Mass, even in a private home".

"Just like Muslims can build their houses of prayer anywhere in the world, the faithful of other religions should be able to do so as well," the French-born cardinal added.

Leading church figures have increasingly expressed concern about Islam in view of friction between Muslims and Christians in Africa and the Middle East and the difficult integration of Muslim minorities in traditionally Christian Europe. -Reuters