The Vatican has defended Pope Benedict XVI from those who criticised him for his stance on contraception.

The Pope said ahead of his first official visit to Africa earlier in the year that condoms could not solve the problems of Aids and could even make things it worse. He was strongly criticised by activists and some governments in Europe.

The Belgian parliament even passed a resolution calling the Pope’s comments “unacceptable” and said that the government should officially protest the Pope’s words.

The Vatican’s latest statement said it deplored "the fact that a parliamentary assembly should have thought it appropriate to criticise the Holy Father on the basis of an isolated extract from an interview, separated from its context", reports the Associated Press.

The statement said that the Pope’s comments were "used by some groups with a clear intent to intimidate, as if to dissuade the Pope from expressing himself on certain themes of obvious moral relevance and from teaching the Church's doctrine".

The Vatican claimed that the criticism led to an "unprecedented media campaign" in Europe to promote condoms as a way of fighting Aids, whilst ignoring the value of the Pope’s teaching on abstinence.

Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi said, "We are making it clear that the Pope and the Church won't be intimidated by these criticisms or by media campaigns and will continue to staunchly support Catholic positions on moral issues."

The Rev John Wauck, professor of literature at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, said that the Vatican statement could be seen as restrained as it did not mention much of the work done by the Catholic Church to fight Aids.

He said, "Sending a package of prophylactics signifies a lot less in terms of self-giving in comparison to someone who has left their country and dedicates their lives to caring for people sick with Aids."

He added that the countries condemning the Pope were those in the more affluent West while countries in Africa, which suffer most from Aids, were not offended by the Pope’s comments.