Egypt is recalling its Vatican envoy for consultations over remarks by Pope Benedict XVI on Coptic Christians seen as an “interference” in its affairs, the foreign ministry said yesterday.

The action follows “new statements from the Vatican concerning Egypt which are considered by Egypt as unacceptable interference in its internal affairs,” the ministry spokesman said in an apparent reference to remarks concerning Copts.

The Pontiff has expressed repeatedly his solidarity with the Copts and called on world leaders to protect them in the aftermath of a New Year’s Day church bombing that killed 21 people as worshippers emerged from midnight Mass in Alexandria.

A day after the attack on the Al-Qiddissin (The Saints) church, the Pope appealed for the “concrete and constant engagement of leaders of nations,” in what he termed a “difficult mission.”

At his New Year’s Day Mass, Pope Benedict underscored that “humanity cannot display resignation in the face of negative forces of selfishness and violence, it cannot get accustomed to conflicts which claim victims and endanger the future of people.”On Sunday Pope Benedict again voiced solidarity with Egypt’s Copts – two days after they marked their Christmas, celebrated on January 7.

“I salute the Coptic faithful present here to whom I renew my expression of closeness,” the Pope told thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.

Egypt’s top Muslim cleric, Ahmed al-Tayeb, criticised the Pope’s call on world leaders to defend the Copts as interference.

“I disagree with the pope’s view, and I ask why did the Pope not call for the protection of Muslims when they were subjected to killings in Iraq?” the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the oldest Islamic seat of learning and Sunni Muslim authority, told a news conference on January 2.