Israel is urging Pope John Paul II to cancel a proposed meeting this month with the right-wing Austrian politician, Mr Jorg Haider.
Mr Haider is to present the pontiff with a Christmas tree for the Vatican to display in St Peter's Square.
Israel withdrew its ambassador to Vienna, and led an ultimately unsuccessful effort to consign Austria to international pariah status, after Mr Haider's Freedom Party was included in his country's coalition government early this year.
While the EU introduced diplomatic sanctions against Austria in February, it lifted them in September after Mr Haider formally resigned as leader of the party.
Mr Haider had praised Nazi employment policies and shown sympathy for SS veterans, and his Freedom Party takes firm anti-immigrant positions.
In a statement yesterday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that, if the Pope went ahead with the meeting with Mr Haider, "a politician who is ostracised by the enlightened world", the Holy See would be sending out "a wrong and inappropriate message . . . particularly in view of the worrying resurgence of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe".
The visit would cause "considerable disappointment and displeasure" to Israel, the Foreign Ministry added.
Mr Haider's visit to Rome has also provoked complaints from left-wing Italian politicians. Some of them plan to switch off their Christmas lights on December 16th in protest against his visit.
The meeting on December 16th has come about more by accident than by design: central European nations take turns to donate the Vatican Christmas tree, and the decision to give this year's honour to Carinthia, the southern Austrian province of which Mr Haider is governor, was made before he took that office.
Mr Haider and his family were received by the Pope in 1993.
Pope John Paul made a historic visit to Israel in March, during which he attempted to promote warmer ties between Catholics and Jews.