The Vatican's conservative policies on birth control have received a blow from one of the Roman Catholic Church's most loyal regions after opinion polls showed overwhelming support in Latin America for measures of contraception.
The move also represents an assault on US policies which, under George Bush, have blocked aid to organisations supporting abortion.
The polls, released at an inter-governmental health conference in Puerto Rico, show at least three quarters of those questioned in Mexico, Colombia and Bolivia supporting contraception being made available to adolescents and even higher majorities in favour of the use of condoms to prevent HIV/Aids.
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A US official at the conference was quoted as saying that criticism of the Bush administration's policies was unfair and that the president wanted to support reproductive health measures, including family planning, but abortion could play no part in that.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1250264,00.html