Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, whose regime has been sanctioned and largely isolated by western governments for atrocities committed in Darfur, on Friday met Pope Benedict XVI and Italy's prime minister Romano Prodi during a rare visit to Europe.Both the Vatican and the Italian government sought to fend off criticism for welcoming Mr Bashir - one of whose ministers is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes - by using the opportunity to press him to reach a peace agreement with Darfur's disparate rebel groups at talks scheduled to be held in Libya next month.
Mr Bashir gave his hosts at least something they could show for their efforts by saying his government was willing to observe a ceasefire for the talks due to start on October 27. He also used a press conference after meeting Mr Prodi to urge Europe to ease sanctions against Khartoum and put pressure on rebel leaders – some of whom are based in Europe – to attend the talks.
Italy announced on Friday it would provide aircraft and training teams to help a 26,000-strong "hybrid" UN-African Union peacekeeping force that is scheduled to start deploying in Darfur before the end of the year.
The Vatican said the pope, who met the Sudanese president at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome, expressed his "heartfelt hope" that the negotiations would succeed. The Vatican said "very positive views were expressed" but gave no details.
Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, described the atmosphere as "very respectful" and said the Sudanese delegation showed "great commitment" to the meeting with the pope.
They also discussed the peace agreement that ended decades of civil war between Sudan's mainly Islamic north and its animist and Christian south. That conflict severely strained ties with the Vatican and led Pope John Paul II to visit Khartoum briefly in 1993 when he met Mr Bashir.
Mr Bashir's large delegation included Sudanese officials representing the south - largely excluded from western sanctions - who were expected to discuss economic development with Italian ministers.
Sudanese forces were reported to have launched an attack against the Justice and Equality rebel group in Darfur this week, using helicopters and aircraft in violation of a UN embargo.
The special US envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, has called for a new oversight commission to enforce a ceasefire agreed in 2004 but repeatedly broken by both sides.
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