March 30, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 26, 1424

VATICAN CITY, March 29: Pope John Paul said on Saturday he feared the US-led war on Iraq could provoke a religious catastrophe in the world and said everything should be done prevent divisions forming between different creeds.

“We must not allow a human tragedy also to become a religious catastrophe,” he said.

The pontiff also expressed the unease felt by senior Roman Catholic religious leaders in the past days that the Iraq war could spark off a wider confrontation between Christianity and Islam.

The pope was speaking after receiving a group of Catholic bishops from Indonesia.—AFP