The Vatican is to publish a new defence of its attitude towards the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews during World War II on Monday. Our Rome correspondent, David Willey, reports:

The Vatican announced that a document on the holocaust written by the department that deals with relations with the Jews will be published on Monday.

A news conference will be held at the Vatican at which Cardinal Edward Cassidy, an Australian prelate who is in charge of relations with the Jews, will explain the document to the media.

Pope John Paul has long promised a statement on the record about the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church towards the holocaust during the Second World War.

Many Jews believe that his predecessor, Pope Pious XII, failed to denounce with sufficient vigour the killing of 6m Jews by the Nazis.

The Vatican has always defended itself by pointing out that Pope Pious secretly saved the lives of many Jews who were being hunted by the Nazis or the Italian fascists and that he did everything he could to stop the slaughter.

During the second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church drastically changed its centuries-long hostility towards the Jews.

In 1986 Pope John Paul paid the first ever visit by a Roman pontiff to the Rome synagogue.

Since then the Vatican has sought to mend bridges by establishing full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state and setting up a permanent Vatican committee to deal with relations with the Jews.

But this committee remains a minor off-shoot of a more important Vatican department which deals with the promotion of unity among the Christian churches, orthodox and protestant, which separated from Rome during the past millenium.