Warsaw  - Anti-communist icon Lech Walesa is backing Roman Catholic groups in their protest against a Madonna concert in Poland, the daily Dziennik reported Tuesday.

The protest committee wants to cancel or reschedule the August 15 show because it falls on the Catholic holiday of the Assumption of Our Lady.

"How to play this out wisely and profitably, that I really don't know," the daily quotes Walesa as saying. "It's true. I support this protest."

The committee said Walesa's moral support was "much needed," and hoped other public figures would join the campaign.

"He's after all a Polish icon," committee member Marian Brudzynski told the daily. "And one of a few public figures who is outspoken about their connection to the Mother of God."

Walesa led strikes in the 1980s in the Baltic shipyards of Gdansk that helped topple the country's communist regime. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and was later elected president.

Walesa has said the end of Communism was a victory of spirit over tyranny. He often wears a lapel pin of Mary and Jesus.

Madonna has caused controversy by using religious symbols during a concert near the Vatican. The name "Madonna" is an old Italian term often used to mean the mother of Jesus.

The concert at the capital's Bemowo airport is expected to draw some 70,000 people.(dpa)