(Repeats to insert "Brazil" in headline)

By Raymond Colitt

BRASILIA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The health of a Brazilian bishop who is on a hunger strike to protest against a government irrigation project has deteriorated considerably, aides said on Monday.

"He is visibly worse today, he's lost 8 kilo (18 lbs) and has hypertension," Clarice Maia, a spokeswoman for Bishop Luiz Cappio, said by telephone from northeastern Bahia state.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has asked the Vatican to renew efforts to end the fast by Cappio, who stopped eating on Nov 27.

The project, Brazil's largest public works venture, aims to pump water from the Sao Francisco River through 435 miles (700 km) of canals to residents and farms in the arid and poverty-plagued northeast, where Lula was born.

Critics including Cappio say the project is too expensive and authorities would have difficulty ensuring the fair distribution of water. Environmentalists fear reducing the river's level could affect navigability, fish migration and biodiversity.

Lula told leaders of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops last week that the government would not cancel the project despite the hunger strike.

Critics said Lula was trying to arm-twist parts of the church.

The Vatican's representative in Brazil as well as the archbishop of Salvador already urged Cappio last week to stop the hunger strike, which they said contradicted Christian principles.

The Catholic church in Brazil has called on Christians to express their solidarity with the protest by fasting.

Dozens of supporters of Cappio held vigils and prayed before Congress in the capital Brasilia on Monday and similar events were expected throughout the country. Thousands of protesters held vigils in three Bahian cities during the weekend, event organizers said.

The Supreme Court is to decide on Wednesday whether to uphold an injunction by a lower court that last week halted construction of the project. The judge questioned whether the government had proper authority for land and water use. (Editing by David Wiessler)

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