An Egyptian-born writer who was baptised by Pope Benedict XVI last Easter after converting to Christianity from Islam has announced that he has founded a political party to "defend Christian Europe" which would field candidates in next June's European elections.

Magdi Cristiano Allam, 56, said the party, "Protagonists for a Christian Europe", would work to defend Europe's Christian values, which were threatened by secularism and moral relativism to the point where Europe risked "committing suicide". The party would be open to people of all faiths.

Mr Allam, an associate editor of the newspaper Corriere della Sera, was speaking at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, accompanied by a police escort. An outspoken critic of Muslim extremism and a supporter of Israel, Mr Allam is under armed guard because of death threats.

He took the name Cristiano on his conversion. Born in Cairo 1952, he has lived most of his adult life in Italy, becoming an Italian citizen in 1986. He once said that the "root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual."

The party symbol bears the twelve stars of the EU round an Italian flag, with the words "Truth and Liberty", "Faith and Reason", and "Values and Rules". However the party was not a religious party and was not intended to appeal only to Christians, Mr Allam said.