US President George W. Bush sought on Saturday to reassure Pope Benedict XVI over the plight of Iraq's minority Christians and also to mend fences with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi after months of bilateral tensions.
The pope "did express deep concern about the Christians inside Iraq," Bush told a news conference in Rome less than a week after a Chaldean priest and three deacons were murdered.
"I assured him we were working hard to make sure that people lived up to the Constitution" calling for religious tolerance, Bush said.
PHOTO: AFP
The murders in northern Iraq last Sunday were followed three days later by the kidnapping of another priest and five of his parishioners belonging to the Chaldean Catholic church, an Eastern rite with up to 700,000 followers.
Bush said of his first audience with the German pontiff who was chosen in April 2005: "I was talking to a very smart, loving man. I was in awe, and it was a moving experience for me."
Pool reporters present before the two went behind doors, however, were surprised to hear Bush repeatedly refer to the 80-year-old pope as "sir" instead of the expected "His Holiness."
Bush also held talks with the Italian prime minister, after which he called US-Italian ties "pretty darn solid."
Prodi remarked that they did not discuss two embarrassing criminal trials under way in Italy involving CIA agents and a US marine.
"We don't have any bilateral problems," Prodi said.
On Friday, just hours before Bush arrived in Rome, a trial opened in Milan over the kidnapping of a terror suspect in Washington's heavily criticized "extraordinary rendition" program.
Twenty-five CIA agents are being tried in absentia for the kidnapping of Milan imam Osama Mustafa Hassan -- better known as Abu Omar -- and transferring him to a high-security prison outside Cairo, where he claims he was tortured.
Bilateral ties were also strained over the killing of Italian secret service number two Nicola Calipari, who was by a US marine in March 2005 on Baghdad's airport road in a so-called "friendly fire" incident.
The marine, Mario Lozano, is also being tried in absentia in Rome, charged with voluntary homicide.
Bush's visit also came the day after Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty released a report saying the CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 to interrogate terror suspects under a program authorized by the countries' presidents.
Also in Rome, an otherwise peaceful anti-Bush protest turned violent as security details clashed with stick-wielding demonstrators.
Protesters wearing hoods and helmets and brandishing sticks were seen throwing bottles and other projectiles at police, who used tear gas to try to disperse them.
Three police officers and a protester were in the melee, ANSA news agency reported.
The security detail for the Bush visit involved some 10,000 police officers -- including hundreds in riot gear -- and scores of armored vehicles.
A separate demonstration was organized by the left flank of Prodi's fractious ruling coalition in the sprawling Piazza del Popolo.
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