Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out against the use of body scanners at airports insisting that "human dignity must be preserved".

Nick Pisa, (The Telegraph) 21 Feb 2010: The Pope made his comments during an audience with airport workers held at the Vatican.

Although the Pontiff did not mention the words body scanner it was clear what he meant as he told the 1,200 strong crowd: "Every action, it is above all essential to protect and value the human person in their integrity.

"Respecting these principles can seem particularly complex and difficult in the present context.

"The economic crisis has had problematic effects on the civil aviation sector, the international terrorist threat which, precisely, has in its line of fire airports and aircraft to realise its destructive schemes.

"Even in this situation, one must never forget that respecting the primacy of the human person and attention to his or her needs does not make the service less efficient nor penalise economic management."

The use of scanners at airports to fight terrorism has caused controversy because the high tech equipment makes people who pass through it appear naked.

As a result there are concerns that scanners break discrimination law and breach privacy – with Italy's society of plastic surgeons claiming that the scanners will reveal if a woman has had breast enhancement surgery.

The use of the reveal all equipment has been of issue ever since Christmas Day terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a plane with explosives smuggled on-board in his underpants.

Airport officials say the use of scanners would have prevented the Nigerian even boarding the plane as he would have been detected at security but some critics say it is not entirely foolproof.

Scanners have been introduced at Heathrow and in Manchester and they will also be phased in gradually at Rome and Milan airports in Italy.

The introduction of full body scanners at Heathrow and Manchester airports has outraged civil liberty campaigners who say that they are an invasion of privacy and they will no doubt pick up on the Pope's objections.

n his speech Pope Benedict, who travels exclusively on Italian carrier Alitalia using a special plane dubbed Shepherd One, added: "The skies represent a motorway of modern travel and as a consequence airports have become crossroads of a global village.

"For you this reality represents an ever more task of complex organisation and it is a labour that if often discreet and barely known, not always noted but which does not escape the eyes of God, who sees all of Man's works even those that are hidden.