Rome ? An Italian parliamentary commission has concluded “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II, the first time an official body has blamed the Kremlin for the failed assassination.

The draft report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, said the pope was considered a threat to the Soviet bloc because of his support for the Solidarity labor movement in his native Poland. Solidarity was the first free trade union in communist eastern Europe.

The Italian report said Soviet military intelligence – and not the KGB – was responsible. Russian Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov called the accusation “absurd.”

The draft has no bearing on any judicial investigations, which have long been closed. If the commission approves the report in its final form at a meeting Tuesday, it will be the first time an official body has blamed the Soviet Union.