Castro to meet the Pope

VATICAN CITY, Nov 16 (Reuter) - The Vatican said yesterday that Pope John Paul and Cuban President Fidel Castro will meet next week, ending suspense about whether two of the towering figures of the 20th century would ever come face to face.

The meeting at the Vatican on Tuesday will be the first encounter between the veteran communist revolutionary and the 76-year-old Polish pontiff and could pave the way for the Pope's first visit to Cuba.

A Vatican spokesman said the Pope would receive 70-year-old Mr Castro, who is in Rome for theWorld Food Summit, at a private audience at 11am.

The groundwork for Tuesday's meeting was done by the Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, who visited Cuba last month and met Mr Castro. Archbishop Tauran said before leaving the island that an eventual trip by the Pope to Cuba would be a new departure point on the road towards normalised relations between the Roman Catholic church and the communist state.

Vatican sources have said a trip could take place next year, possibly as part of a trip to Brazil already planned for October.

Despite recent improvements, relations between the Cuban Catholic Church and the communist government are still strained over issues of education, full religious freedom, and the Church's use of the mass media.

Vatican sources said that at next week's audience the Pope is expected to push for democratic reforms in Cuba and Castro would most likely repeat his condemnation of the 34-year-old US embargo against the island.

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