A diplomatic spat has erupted between France and Poland over a top court order to remove a cross from a statue of the late Pope John Paul II in a Brittany town because it breached rules on secularism.

Poland has pledged to save the work from the "dictates of political correctness" by having it shipped to the late pontiff's native country.

Gifted in 2006 to the mayor of Ploërmel, western France, the 7.5 metre-high statue depicts John Paul II in prayer, standing beneath an arch adorned with a large cross.

However, after a decade-long battle, the Conseil d’Etat, France’s top administrative court, has ruled that the cross must be removed from the public space as it violates a 1905 law imposing the strict separation of Church and State.