A leader in Italy's Northern League has angered the mayor of Rome by joking that the city's ancient acronym, PQR, means "Roman people are pigs."

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The letters stand for Senatus Populusque Romanus and date back more than 2,000 years to the Roman Republic.

Umberto Bossi, during an appearance Monday at a Miss Padania beauty contest, said the initials stand for "Sono Porci Questi Romani," the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Roman Mayor Gianni Alemanno, a member of the league's center-right ally, the People of Freedom Party, said the joke was "beyond the pale." He also called it unoriginal, cribbed from the French Asterix comics about a plucky Gaul resisting the Roman empire.

"Not only has he insulted the Rome of today but also that of the past, dusting off a hackneyed old joke from a comic book," Alemanno said.

Politicians from across the political spectrum condemned Bossi, although some on the right suggested too much was being made of a casual remark.

Francesco Totti, the captain of Rome's soccer team, challenged Bossi to repeat the remark in the Colosseum, where gladiators once battled to the death, The Daily Telegraph reported.