The Vatican yesterday publicly criticized Dan Brown's best seller novel The Da Vinci Code for containing "cheap lies" and urged people not to read it.

 70-year-old Tarciso Bertone, a senior cardinal in the Catholic Church and contender to be the next Pope, told Vatican radio, according to Mirror.co.uk: "These lies need to be unmasked.

"My appeal is that people do not buy or read this book. It is a castle of lies. There's a real risk they'll think this fairytale real."

The hit book, which has sold 18 million copies worldwide and is available in 44 languages, claims that former prostitute Mary Magdalene was Jesus's wife and conceived his child.

The author also portrays the secret Catholic society Opus Dei as a corrupt sect and criticizes the Roman Catholic Church for suppressing the feminine side of Christianity.

Earlier this month France's and Italy's Catholic Church called for a ban of French clothing advertisement inspired by The Da Vinci Code. The "innovative" version of Leonardo da Vinci's Christs's Last Supper fresco, used by fashion designers Marithe & Francois Girbaud, featured a female Christ and two apostles embracing a bare-chested man in jeans.