ROME (AFP) - A Slovak street performer dressed in white papal vestments has been detained and fined by the police in Rome for bearing too close a resemblance to the late John Paul II, the police said on Friday.

"The problem was that he looked a lot like Karol Wojtyla. He was detained for usurpation of title which is a misdemeanour," a police spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

"The cassock he was wearing has been confiscated," she added.

The man has been released and will have to pay between 154 and 929 euros (S$189 and S$1,142), depending on a decision by a judge, the spokesman said.

Another officer at the station where the 55-year-old man was taken quipped: "If he had been dressed like Tutankhamun nothing would have happened."

The performer has been working the main avenue leading up to the Colosseum in his white skullcap for weeks - alongside Roman centurion imitators and other performers - but police said they acted following an anonymous complaint.

A vendor selling miniature Colosseum souvenirs on a spot overlooking the Roman Forum said he saw the man being detained on Thursday.

"He was right here, near me. He was taken away by two officers in civilian clothes who were pretending to be tourists," he said.