Vatican newspaper criticises Berlusconi for joke about Jews

The Vatican newspaper has criticised Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for telling a "deplorable" joke about the Jews and the Holocaust.

Mr Berlusconi, chatting with supporters outside his home, told a joke about a Jew who charged a fellow Jew 3,000 euros a day to hide him in his basement during World War II.

The prime minister's punchline was: "The Jew says, the question now is whether we should tell him Hitler is dead and the war is over." The joke was videotaped and posted over the weekend on the website of the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica.