The Vatican has hit out at a giant new modernist sculpture that portrays the late Pope John Paul II, saying the bronze work outside Rome's main train station does not even look like him.

Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said today the towering statue gives the impression a bomb hit the square.

The artist, Oliviero Rainaldi, depicts the pontiff as if he is opening his cloak to embrace the faithful. But the Vatican says the effect is more like a police sentry box than a welcoming pontiff.

Some at the station described the sculpture as hideous. Two said it looks more like the late dictator Benito Mussolini than the widely-beloved Polish-born pontiff.