Frankfurt - An annual culture award in Germany was deferred Monday after controversy erupted over the deletion of a Muslim author from the winners' list for writing that a crucifix was an idolatrous image.

The state of Hesse had planned to hand its 45,000-euro (61,000-dollar) prize on July 5 jointly to a Jew, a Muslim, a Catholic and a Lutheran to honour the cultural value of religious dialogue. But a squabble broke out among them over religion.

Catholic Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz and Peter Steinacker, former head of the Lutheran church of Hesse and Nassau, objected to sharing the state culture prize with Navid Kermani, an Iranian-born author.

Kermani had begun an article about a crucifix, a standard Christian image that depicts Jesus Christ in an agonizing death nailed to a wooden cross, with, "I'd express my personal rejection of the theology of the cross frankly with 'blasphemy and idolatry'."

The prize board, chaired by Hesse's premier, Roland Koch, said Monday the prizegiving would be delayed to later in the year so that the two Christians could meet with Kermani and resolve their differences out of the public eye.

Kermani said Monday he would gladly meet with the two churchmen and Jewish leader Salomon Korn. But he charged that Koch had caved in to the Christians' complaints last week, and deprived him of the prize, before backtracking in the face of a public outcry. (dpa)