VATICAN CITY, Feb 17: Pope John Paul II will meet UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday amid the Vatican’s diplomatic drive to avert a US-led war with Iraq.

The talks come just days after Cardinal Roger Etchegaray’s landmark meeting in Baghdad with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein which convinced the papal envoy “peace was still possible in Iraq and for Iraq.”

“The new and brief respite that we have been given must be used in full and in a spirit of mutual trust to meet the demands of the international community,” Etchegaray said as he left the Iraqi capital on Sunday.

“The slightest step in the coming days will be a huge leap for peace,” added the papal envoy in remarks released by the Holy See Monday.

The pope has repeatedly urged international leaders to step back from the brink of war with Iraq. Saddam reportedly told Etchegaray in two hours of talks that he felt “more relieved” after UN weapons inspectors gave a mixed progress report to the UN Security Council.

“He is doing everything to avoid war,” Etchegaray told Italian RAI-1 television.

“My meeting with President Saddam Hussein centred on concrete questions that I cannot mention out of respect for the person who sent me and the person who received me,” the 80-year-old envoy said earlier.—AFP