VATICAN CITY, Feb 18: Pope John Paul II and UN chief Kofi Annan stressed the need to keep the UN at the forefront of efforts to stave off a US-led military assault on Iraq in talks here late on Tuesday.

A Vatican statement released after the 30-minute meeting of two of the loudest opponents of a war underlined the UN’s “essential role” in seeking a peaceful resolution to the stand-off.

Impatient at what it sees as Baghdad’s game playing with UN weapons inspectors, the US has said that if necessary, it would go to war without UN Security Council authorization.

“Underlining the essential role of the United Nations, it was hoped that just and efficient solutions could still be found” to the crisis, the Vatican said after Annan’s meeting with the 82-year-old pontiff.

“Those solutions must also avoid further grave suffering inflicted on a population already tested by long years of embargoes,” it added.

The UN chief said there was no “time limit” for Iraqi compliance with UN Resolution 1441.

Mr Annan also met the pope’s senior foreign policy advisor Cardinal Angelo Sodano and had an opportunity to speak directly to papal troubleshooter Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who met Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Saturday.

The veteran French cardinal is likely to have given Mr Annan a positive message of Iraqi compliance.

Cardinal Etchegaray has already said he believes Saddam “is doing everything to avoid war,” and that talks should proceed “in a spirit of mutual trust.”

“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 on Monday.

The pope has ceaselessly voiced opposition to a strike on Iraq, and the Vatican has resisted a US campaign to portray the conflict with Iraq as a “just war”.

The Holy See has repeatedly warned that a war against Baghdad could be interpreted by extremists as a war between the West and Islam, which would be a severe setback of John Paul II’s policy of reaching out to all religions.

PEACE MISSION: The Vatican would approve a peace mission to Iraq by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Pope John Paul II’s senior foreign policy advisor Cardinal Angelo Sodano said on Wednesday.—AFP