The Vatican has forcefully rejected accusations that wartime Pope Pius XII was an anti-Semite and Nazi sympathiser who turned a blind eye to the Holocaust during the second world war. "He certainly was not. He helped the Jews," said Father Pierre Blet, the Vatican's leading historian on the period.

Father Blet, a French Jesuit, was responding to a point-blank question - "Was Pius an anti-Semite?" - asked at a news conference launching the Italian version of Father Blet's book.

Father Blet and Cardinal Pio Laghi repeated the Vatican's position that Pope Pius did not speak out forcefully in defence of Jews because he feared that lashing out against Hitler would have worsened their fate and that of Catholics.

"The public silence (of Pius XII) was the cover for a secret activity through Vatican embassies and bishoprics to try to stop the deportations," Father Blet said.