"Angels & Demons" director sees Vatican meddling

* "Angels & Demons" controversy ahead of Monday premiere

* Film director accuses Vatican of meddling

* Says critics of "Angels & Demons" haven't seen movie

By Phil Stewart

ROME, May 3 (Reuters) - Director Ron Howard accused the Vatican on Sunday of trying to hamper the filming and the Rome roll-out of his new movie "Angels & Demons", and challenged Catholic critics to see the film before condemning it.

The movie sequel to author Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" will premiere in Rome on Monday, with fictional symbologist Robert Langdon returning to the big screen to help the Vatican rescue kidnapped cardinals and find a ticking time-bomb.

The Vatican was outraged by "The Da Vinci Code" and the Rome archdiocese made no secret about denying Howard authorisation to film parts of the follow-up inside its churches.

Howard said the Vatican also exerted its influence "through backchannels" to try to prevent him from shooting in areas around certain churches and got an event related to the film's premiere cancelled, he said.