The Vatican has accused organisers of an internet poll to find the seven new “wonders of the world” of deliberately ignoring Christian monuments.

Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, who heads the Vatican’s pontifical commission for culture and archeology, said that the exclusion of Christian works of art such as Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel was “surprising, inexplicable, even suspicious”. More than 70 million votes have been cast in the privately sponsored campaign, which will announce the winner today in Portugal.

The campaign was launched a year ago by Bernard Weber, a Swiss film-maker and museum curator, who felt compelled to take action after the destruction of the giant Buddha statues at Bamiyan in Afghanistan by the Taleban in 2001.

A total of 21 sites have been shortlisted, including Stonehenge, the Acropolis in Athens, the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Colosseum in Rome, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Wall of China, the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, Petra in Jordan, the Easter Island statues and, the Taj Mahal in India. Also on the shortlist are the giant statue of Christ Redeemer on Corcovado mountain above Rio de Janeiro, and St Basil’s and the Kremlin cathedrals in Moscow.

But according to Avvenire, the Italian Catholic daily, the Vatican believes that these have been selected as tourist attractions, rather than as Christian sites, and only after intense political lobbying by the governments of Brazil and Russia.

Monsignor Piecenza said that many other Christian sites had been ignored, from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and Antonio GaudÍ’s Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona to world famous cathedrals. “Vatican officials suspect an antiChristian bias” said La Repubblica yesterday. Francesco Buranelli, the director of the Vatican Museums, said he was also aghast. “How they can they possibly exclude from the wonders of the world a masterpiece like the Sistine Chapel, which last year alone had over four million visitors?”

The new shortlist was drawn up by a panel of architects chaired by Federico Mayor, the former head of Unesco. It also includes the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, the Alhambra in Granada, the Kiyomizu Temple in Japan, Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, the Statue of Liberty in New York and the ancient city of Timbuktu in Mali.

The New Seven Wonders hopes to raise money through sponsorship, television rights for the ceremony and marketing schemes, and says that the funds will be used “to cover costs” and conservation projects.

A spokeswoman for the foundation said: “I don’t see why the Taj Mahal and Chichen Itza shouldn’t be marketed when Big Brother and the latest jeans worn by Victoria Beckham are.”

She added: “The idea is to stimulate dialogue and mutual cultural appreciation. We want people to appreciate both their own and other cultures.”

The results will be announced during a televised ceremony at a football stadium in Lisbon. Of the original classical Wonders of the World, only the Pyramids at Giza are still standing.