061599 Spice TART GINGER'S SAFE-SEX COMMENTS TOO SPICEY FOR CATHOLIC CHURCH

By BILL HOFFMANN

Furious Catholic leaders yesterday slammed former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell for pushing safe sex and birth control.

The controversy erupted as Halliwell toured Manila, Philippines on her first day as a United Nations goodwill ambassador.

The flame-haired pop star visited a health clinic and talked candidly to 30 patients about her views on safe sex and family planning.

"I believe that if you can't control your fertility, you can't control your life," said Halliwell, 27.

"And if you're having sex, you've got to be protected against unwanted pregnancy and infection. It's everybody's fundamental right."

Asked if everyone should practice safe sex by using condoms, she replied: "Absolutely."

Officials of the Catholic Church of the Philippines were floored by the remarks.

"This is a free country, we don't interfere in the right of anybody to go anywhere or say what they believe,"' said the Rev. James Reuter, director of the church's mass-media office in the Philippines.

"But we do not need population control, and any effort at safe sex is totally, utterly immoral from top to bottom."

Halliwell has been mum on her religious affiliation, although in recent months she has made visits to the Church of Scientology. She also had actresses playing nuns in one of her videos.

Still known as Ginger Spice - Halliwell selected the Philippines as her first goodwill assignment because the Asian country has a high population growth rate and a thousands of unwed mothers.

With 74 million people, the Philippines has a population growth rate of 2.32 percent, one of the highest in Asia and the world.

Also yesterday, Halliwell met a women's group - which provides basic health checks for women living in the slums - and took part in discussions with students on sexual health issues.

Since leaving the Spice Girls last year, Halliwell has done charity work and has just released a debut solo album called "Schizophonic."

Last year, she helped lead a breast cancer awareness campaign and told of her own cancer scare at the age of 18.