ROME (AP) — Italian police closed down five U.S.-based Web sites that had been blaspheming Catholicism with a combination of pornographic pictures and offensive statements about the Madonna, police said Tuesday.

Investigators first learned about the sites, with names that translate into phrases including "Pig Madonna" and "Blasphemy," in 2000.

"At these addresses, the mention of God and the Madonna, besides being preceded by strongly vulgar language, was tied to explicit images of sex," the police said in a statement.

Blasphemy is illegal in Italy and although cursing has been decriminalized, publishing or broadcasting sacrilegious material can be prosecuted, police said.

Col. Giuseppe Montanaro of the police unit involved in the case said the sites were created in Italy and hosted by Internet providers in Washington, D.C., and California.

A man from Rome faces charges in the case. Authorities were still working on what exactly the charges might be, but Montanaro said the man could face imprisonment and a fine.

Police said they used the same computer from which the Web sites were uploaded to remove the offensive material and replace it with the crest of the special police unit involved.

They did not say whether they informed the Internet providers that hosted the sites. Nor did they name the providers.

"We blocked out these sites because they tied a festival of blasphemy with distasteful sexual images in which they mixed the name of God, the name of the Madonna, with religious cursing," Montanaro said. "But this wasn't enough — they then went on to showing a nun in suggestive clothes or other things in poor taste."

The sites got about 12 million hits in the two years they were open, police said. Authorities were first tipped off by an article that appeared in the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano in October 2000.

This wasn't the only case of crossborder action over offensive Web sites. In France, human rights groups have battled in court to hold the California-based Yahoo Internet portal responsible for racist material that has appeared on its Web pages.

-------- Xavier

-- Xavier (xavier_david24@yahoo.com), November 21, 2002

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-- SD (@@@@jkh.lll), November 21, 2002.

We will expire the Vatican.

We will throw its demons into the sea.

Expire Demon Racism.

-- Rita Hill of Earth (leouna@yahoo.com), November 21, 2002.

What Rita says:

"We will expire the Vatican. We will throw its demons into the sea. Expire Demon Racism."

What Rita means:

"Pay attention to me! I want to be noticed! Please!"

What we hear:

"I'm crazy. I'm crazy! I'm really crazy!"

-- (--@--.--), November 21, 2002.

Could it be...

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), November 21, 2002.