The European Parliament yesterday urged EU member states and candidates to give women safe access to abortion, singling out Ireland and Poland as countries with the strictest laws on terminating pregnancies.

In a non-binding resolution certain to anger many people and politicians in the two predominantly Roman Catholic countries, the parliament said that "abortion should be made legal, safe and accessible to all", Reuters reported.

The European bishops' conference immediately expressed its "regret" at the parliament's adpotion of the report on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Reuters said the resolution was sure to delight women's rights activists but anger the Vatican.

The resolution says that no woman should be prosecuted for having an illegal abortion and calls for easy access to contraception and sexual education.

In Ireland, where the electorate is generally wary of EU institutions meddling with the country's internal affairs, abortion is possible only to save a woman's life.

EU candidate Poland, homeland of Pope John Paul, imposed a virtual ban on abortion in the early 1990s after a vocal campaign by the Catholic Church to end nearly 40 years of terminations available on demand.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, has refused to get involved in abortion debates in the two countries, stressing the EU has no powers over the sensitive issue.

"Sexual and reproductive issues... are best decided as close as possible to those affected," EU Health Commission David Byrne, an Irishman, told the parliament.

The Polish parliament's European Committee officially protested on Wednesday against "attempts at putting EU members and candidates under pressure to legalise abortion".

Maltese bishops had already said they were seriously concerned over the report, after it was approved earlier this month by a committee of the parliament

However, the government had immediately clarified that the EU had no right or competence to impose a position in favour of abortion on its members, and stressed that the resolutions issued by the European Parliament were not legally binding on member states.

Speaking in parliament last night, Nationalist MP Michael Axiak said it was good that the Maltese bishops should show they mean business on abortion. However, one had to be careful as issues of a moral nature did not fall within the competence of the European Union as per article 30 of the revised treaties.

Thus, abortion could not be introduced in Malta unless the Maltese Parliament decided so , even if Malta were a member of the EU.

Thousands of recommendations were made by committees of the European Parliament and they remained just that, recommendations.

Dr Axiak said the danger of abortion being introduced in Malta did not emanate from the EU or the European Parliament but from the Maltese people's desire to legalise it. He was certain that when the people decided to do so, abortion would be introduced in Malta.

The same applied to divorce, he said.

It was wrong to argue that abortion was wrong simply because the Church said so. It was important to explain that abortion was wrong because it meant taking the life of a human being.

Dr Axiak said he feared the Church in Malta had not yet made the breakthrough of working on the mental formation of the people, giving them not just the moral but also the physical reasons for resisting abortion.

The Secretariat of the Commission of the Bishops' Conference of the European Community (COMECE) issued a statement saying it regretted the adoption, by 280 votes to 240 with 28 abstentions, of the report by Anne van Lancker MEP.

"The report raises some serious issues. We therefore find it all the more regrettable that these issues are obscured by a number of polemical assertions based on the questionable conclusions of what the report itself admits is inadequate research," the COMECE secretariat said.

"We especially regret that the report calls for abortion to be made legal and for the morning-after pill to be made more accessible in all member states and accession countries. We also regret the contradiction between the report's assurances of respect for subsidiarity and an inclusive approach to sexual health on the one hand, and its espousal of a reductive approach to the delivery of sexual and reproductive health services in the member states and accession countries on the other.

"The Catholic Church considers the health of all women, men and children, at all stages of their life, to be of the utmost importance. It advocates a holistic approach based on a combination of medical care, education and personal responsibility, and supports this through hospitals, schools, community centres and other projects.

"With regard to abortion, the Catholic Church teaches that human life begins from the moment of conception: abortion is wrong because it denies the right of the unborn human being to life. This does not detract from the Church's support for the fundamental human right of women to live in dignity and security."

The secretariat said the EU has no powers or responsibilities regarding abortion or any issue related to the delivery of sexual and reproductive health care. These issues remained the exclusive competence of the member states.

"Whilst this principle is also recognised in the first paragraph of the report, it is contradicted in the rest. It is regrettable and inappropriate that the Parliament should seek to influence the policies of not only member states, but also accession countries, in an area for which it has no responsibility."

The report, said the secretariat, would not change the legislation or policy of the EU, its member states or the accession countries.

"However, we fear that this report will send two messages that con only serve to discredit the Parliament. Either it will give the impression that the Parliament wishes to impose on Member States and Accession Countries policies on which they have the exclusive, democratic right to decide. Or it will promote the suspicion that the Parliament has no more urgent business than to produce reports on issues for which it has no competence.

"We hope that neither of these is true, but the adoption of this report does little to promote confidence among citizens in the democratic decision-making process of the European Union."