Vatican Radio is to carry advertisements from July for the first time in its 78 year history - provided they are morally and ideologically sound.

Potential advertisers will be screened for "ethical content". The first advertisements will be for the Italian energy company Enel, and will be broadcast in five languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French and German.

Until now the Holy See has argued that the Vatican Radio's 40 languages and its geographical spread ruled out advertising. However Father Federico Lombardi, who is both the Pope's spokesman and head of Vatican Radio, said it was now available 24-hours day on FM stations in Italy and via the Internet as well as on short, medium and long waves.

"This programming, with an increasingly stable public, is naturally a place where publicity can more logically be inserted," Father Lombardi said. Vatican radio costs over twenty million Euros to run but generates no income. Piero Gnudi, the head of Enel, said ''We are proud to have been chosen as the first advertiser for a radio station that is among the most wide-reaching in the world".

Vatican Radio employs around 200 journalists to broadcast news of the Pope and the Catholic Church to the world. It was set up by Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor of radio, in 1931 and inaugurated with a message by Pope Piux XI, who embraced the new technology as a means of spreading the Christian message.