Bush meets pope as anti-war protesters gather
Sunday, 10 June 2007
VATICAN CITY, Jun 9 (AFP): US President George W. Bush had his first private audience at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI Saturday as anti-war protesters gathered in Rome amid heavy security.
The US leader told European journalists last month that he would be in "a listening mode" during his half-hour meeting with the 80-year-old German pontiff, elected in April 2005.
Bush and Benedict will discuss the Iraq war, the Middle East "and the large ethical and social questions concerning people worldwide," according to the Vatican's secretary of state, Tarcisio Bertone.
The pope lamented during his Easter message this year that "nothing positive comes from Iraq."
The US leader will also meet with officials of the lay Catholic Sant'Egidio community to discuss their fight against AIDS in Africa under a programme known as DREAM, or Drug Resource Enhancement Against AIDS and Malnutrition.
Bush was to meet Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi later Saturday, a day after the release of an explosive report detailing secret CIA prisons in Europe.
The US leader, who arrived here late Friday following the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, and a brief stop in Poland, began the day with a courtesy visit to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
Heavy security measures were in force, with some 10,000 police including hundreds in riot gear and scores of armoured vehicles deployed in central Rome as helicopters hovered overhead. St Peter's Square was completely closed off to visitors.
Two separate protests, one by the left flank of Prodi's fractious ruling coalition and the other by more hardline anti-US campaigners, were planned Saturday afternoon under sunny skies.
Prodi has asked government members of the Refoundation Communist, Italian Communist and Green parties not to join the protest, while party leaders and lawmakers plan to attend.
Italian Welfare Minister Paolo Ferrero of the Refoundation Communist party said Friday that he would not join the protest out of a "sense of responsibility," while noting: "Bush is a warmonger, I understand those who oppose him."
Military issues are particularly thorny in Italy, such as Rome's tenuous commitment to its mission in Afghanistan and widespread domestic opposition to a plan to enlarge a US military base in northeastern Italy.
Prodi was briefly forced to step down three months ago after losing a foreign policy vote in the Senate, principally over the deployment of 2,000 Italian troops in Afghanistan, for lack of support from the far left of his ruling coalition.
The US leader told European journalists last month that he would be in "a listening mode" during his half-hour meeting with the 80-year-old German pontiff, elected in April 2005.
Bush and Benedict will discuss the Iraq war, the Middle East "and the large ethical and social questions concerning people worldwide," according to the Vatican's secretary of state, Tarcisio Bertone.
The pope lamented during his Easter message this year that "nothing positive comes from Iraq."
The US leader will also meet with officials of the lay Catholic Sant'Egidio community to discuss their fight against AIDS in Africa under a programme known as DREAM, or Drug Resource Enhancement Against AIDS and Malnutrition.
Bush was to meet Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi later Saturday, a day after the release of an explosive report detailing secret CIA prisons in Europe.
The US leader, who arrived here late Friday following the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, and a brief stop in Poland, began the day with a courtesy visit to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
Heavy security measures were in force, with some 10,000 police including hundreds in riot gear and scores of armoured vehicles deployed in central Rome as helicopters hovered overhead. St Peter's Square was completely closed off to visitors.
Two separate protests, one by the left flank of Prodi's fractious ruling coalition and the other by more hardline anti-US campaigners, were planned Saturday afternoon under sunny skies.
Prodi has asked government members of the Refoundation Communist, Italian Communist and Green parties not to join the protest, while party leaders and lawmakers plan to attend.
Italian Welfare Minister Paolo Ferrero of the Refoundation Communist party said Friday that he would not join the protest out of a "sense of responsibility," while noting: "Bush is a warmonger, I understand those who oppose him."
Military issues are particularly thorny in Italy, such as Rome's tenuous commitment to its mission in Afghanistan and widespread domestic opposition to a plan to enlarge a US military base in northeastern Italy.
Prodi was briefly forced to step down three months ago after losing a foreign policy vote in the Senate, principally over the deployment of 2,000 Italian troops in Afghanistan, for lack of support from the far left of his ruling coalition.