Atheist ads are kicked off the

buses in Italy

A plan to put atheist slogans on buses in Italy has been shot down by the Roman Catholic Church.

The campaign, which follows a similar one in Britain, had caused controversy in the deeply Catholic country.

The ads read 'The bad news is that God doesn't exist. The good news is that you don't need him' and were to have made their first appearance today in the streets of Genoa.

Atheist campaign: Evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins has backed the campaign and helped launch it in London. However, a similar campaign in Italy has infuriated the Catholic population

The city was targeted because it is home to the head of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, an outspoken opponent of artificial insemination and gay marriage.

Cardinal Bagnasco was said to be 'furious' about the plans and had his assistants write to the bus company and the advertising firm in charge of the £13,000 campaign to express their opposition.

At the last minute the campaign was cancelled. A source said the cardinal was 'delighted'.

A spokesman for The Italian Union of Atheists and Rationalist Agnostics, which organised the campaign, said yesterday: 'It appears that buses can carry campaigns for underwear and holidays with no problem but if you ask for space to say God doesn't exist then you are denied.'

In Britain, the £140,000 campaign had posters saying: 'There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.'