Italy's Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said on Tuesday she would appeal a landmark European Court of Human Rights' ruling against crucifixes in Italian classrooms.

The European ruling sparked controversy in Italy, a deeply Catholic country where crucifixes are often hanged in schoolrooms and public places such as hospitals.

Gelmini explained that crosses were "a symbol of Italian tradition" and their exposure did not necessarily signify affiliation to the Catholic Church.

A successful appeal to the Court would lead to Tuesday's ruling being reconsidered, but if the appeal is turned down the verdict will become effective in three months.

The ruling panel of the 47-member Council of Europe, which the court represents, will then have six months to decide what action the Italian government should take to avoid future suits.

The European ruling was issued following a suit filed by a Finnish-born mother of two daughters of Italian citizenship. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called the ruling "a death blow for a Europe of values and rights", adding that Europe 's roots lay in its "Christian identity."

He added that the ruling was "a very bad precedent for other religions." "At a time when we're trying to bring religions closer, the Christian religion gets whacked,"Frattini said.

Senate Speaker Renato Schifani expressed as well his regret for the ruling.

The European Court of Human Rights decreed on Tuesday that crucifixes in Italian classrooms were a violation of parents' rights to educate their children according to their principles and ran counter to a child's own rights to freedom of religious choice.

The Italian government was ordered to pay the Finnish-born woman 5,000 euros in "moral damages". Crucifixes are present in Italian public buildings although the postwar Constitution ordered a separation of Church and State, while Catholicism ceased to be Italy's state religion in 1984.

The European Court of Human Rights upholds the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights to which the Council of Europe, Europe' s only human rights body, adheres.