The court, which sits in Strasbourg, France, ruled in an appeal by a Finnish immigrant to Italy, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Soile Lautsi, who is an Italian citizen and lives near Padua, had lost in Italian courts when she asked for the removal of crosses from classrooms in her children's schools.

The Italian government must pay Lautsi 5,000 euros ($7,350) in "moral damages," the court said.

The Vatican denounced the crucifixes ruling. Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said the crucifix was a fundamental sign of the importance of religious values in Italian history and culture and was a symbol of unity and not of exclusion.

He said a European court had no right intervening in such a profoundly Italian matter.

"Religion gives a precious contribution to the formation and moral growth of people, and it's an essential component in our civilization," he said. "It's wrong and myopic to try to exclude it from education."

Conservative politicians in Italy denounced the decision. Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini called classroom crucifixes ''a symbol of Italian tradition," not a Christian one.

Under current Italian law, local governments can decide whether to hang crucifixes in public buildings. (c) UPI (c) tPC