CLARIFICATION REGARDING A CAR GIVEN TO THE POPE

VATICAN CITY, DEC 23, 1999 (VIS) - This afternoon Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration:

"There is some erroneous information that I must rectify in a news item that appeared yesterday (in an Italian newspaper), referring to the gift of a car that might be used by the Pope.

"(The article) mentions the cost of this car as being billions of Italian lire. Although no reference is made to the source of this information, I must clarify that the car in question is the prototype of a series that will soon be in production."

"To attribute the research costs for the entire series to the prototype model is erroneous and misleading.

"I would be glad if the information published today could be corrected in the sense I have mentioned."

OP;POPE CAR;...;NAVARRO-VALLS ;VIS;19991223;Word: 150;