Roman Catholic campaigners in Poland have held a mass outside the former Nazi German death camp at Auschwitz as part of a campaign to place permanent Christian religious symbols there.

The campaign has been opposed Jewish groups, the Polish government and the Roman Catholic church.

A Roman Catholic priest, Tadeusz Dziegiel-Wolyniewicz, said there should be a joint international memorial for Jews and Catholics.

The Polish news agency, PAP, said the priest also accused Jewish groups of trying to undermine Catholicism by objecting to crosses set-up outside the camp.

One-and-a-half million people were killed at Auschwitz, most of them Jews.