The European Court of Human Rights accepted Italy's appeal over its ruling condemning the display of crucifixes in Italian schools, the court said in a statement today.

"The college of five judges in the court's Grand Chamber accepted the appeal lodged by the Italian government on January 28", the court said, adding it would deliver a definitive judgement on the case in several months.

The court's ruling on November 3, that found the display of crucifixes in Italian schools breached the rights of non-Catholic families, drew howls of anger from Church and political leaders in the staunchly Catholic country.

Catholicism was the state religion in Italy until 1984, and a 1920s ruling ordering the presence of crucifixes in schools was never abolished.

Italian mother Soile Lautsi, whose two children attended a state school near Venice, took her case to the European court after a long battle pitting her against Italy's Catholic establishment.