ROME (AP) – Italy’s new research minister has touched off a political storm in this Roman Catholic country by saying he was open to embryonic stem cell research.

The fuss began when University and Research Minister Fabio Mussi – a left-wing lawmaker from a former Communist Party – said during a visit to Brussels this week that he had removed Italy’s signature from a “declaration of ethics” objecting to using European Union funds for embryonic stem cell research.

The declaration had allowed its seven signatories to block any EU plans for funding such research in countries that allow it. In Italy, stem cell research is illegal and is not affected by Mussi’s decision.

“Let us stay open to dialogue on ethics, and let’s not close the door on human hope,” Mussi said, defending his position in a front-page commentary published Friday in the Rome daily La Repubblica.

On Saturday, Mussi received a high-profile boost from Rita Levi Montalcini, a senator-for-life in the Italian parliament who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1986.

“I am fully in agreement with Mussi’s position to finally allow research on stem cells,” the scientist said in an interview published in Milan daily Corriere della Sera.

Cells taken from human embryos are uniquely versatile, and many hope that one day they could help treat Alzheimer’s, Type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other health problems.

Roman Catholic teaching opposes scientific research on human embryonic stem cells.

Church officials as well as conservative opposition members blasted Mussi’s move, saying he had disregarded the feelings of most Italians.

Newly elected Premier Romano Prodi and many members of his center-left coalition have distanced themselves from Mussi’s position.

Opposition politicians said the issue showed that Prodi’s fractious coalition – whose parties range from Christian Democrats to Communists – could not agree, and that the premier could not control his ministers.

Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s opposition party demanded that Prodi’s government explain its stand on stem cells in Parliament.

The EU allows such research in cases where the stem cells came from embryos that otherwise would have been destroyed, EU spokesman Antonia Mochan said. Such research also must be approved by several committees, including an ethics board.

Seven countries signed the ethics declaration in November: Italy, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Slovakia. Italy’s withdrawal means the other six now have insufficient votes for blocking any EU funding for research projects.

In the United States, the Bush administration has banned federal funding for research on stem cell lines developed after August 2001.

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