The edict includes ways of earning indulgences to help get to paradise in the fast lane, including abstaining from smoking and drinking and giving to charity.

The 78-year-old Pope presided at a three-hour ceremony in St Peter's Basilica marking the official start of the final phase of preparations for the millennium.

The Holy Year starts on Christmas Eve, 1999, and ends on 6 January, 2001.

During the mass, the Pope handed over to four cardinals a ''bull", the most solemn form of papal document, entitled "Incarnations Mysterium", The Mystery of the Incarnation.

'Give up smoking and drinking'

One aspect is its treatment of indulgences, made infamous in the 16th century for being sold rather than earned.

The Pope hands over the papal bull

The Church teaches that people who do not go directly to paradise or hell after death must do some time in purgatory, an unpleasant waiting room for heaven.

But the time can be shortened through indulgences - acts of penance through which the faithful can win forgiveness of sins.

While many Catholics consider indulgences an anachronism of the past, the conservative Pope assigns them great spiritual significance.

Attached to the Bull is a four-page Vatican directive called "Conditions for Gaining the Jubilee Indulgence".

It says this can be gained through actions which ''include abstaining for at least one whole day from unnecessary consumption, that is from smoking or alcohol, or fasting."

Vatican officials made clear there had to be the correct penitential spirit behind the abstinence in order for indulgences to work.

Indulgences can also be earned by good deeds such as visiting the sick or jailed, making pilgrimages to churches and giving to charity.

Shameful history

In other parts of the edict, the Pope says the Roman Catholic Church must "implore forgiveness" for the historical injustices it committed in the past.

He says although there are many examples of holiness in the Church's history, it had to be acknowledged that "history also records events which constitute a counter-testimony to Christianity".

Commentators have speculated that the Catholic Church will officially ask forgiveness for past errors, including the Inquisition and its treatment of Jews.

The papal bull also addresses Israel's claim to the entire city of Jerusalem, a claim the Vatican does not recognise.