BBC NEWS 24 143 08 Aug 13:59/26 ************ *************** ****** * *** *** ** ****** *** *********** ************ ************************** ITALY BACKS POPE'S PLAN TO VISIT IRAQ The Italian foreign minister has backed the Pope's plan to visit Baghdad as part of a millennium tour of biblical sites, the ANSA news agency reports.
"The Pope's motives are humanitarian... I see no reason to oppose all this," Lamberto Dini told an Italian paper.
Pope John Paul II aims to visit Ur of the Chaldees - now in Iraq - where the Bible says Abraham was born.
The Pope's pilgrimage would also include ancient sites in Egypt, Syria, Greece, Israel and Palestinian areas.
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