Papal envoy brings message for Saddam

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A French cardinal came to Baghdad on Tuesday with a personal message from Pope John Paul II for Saddam Hussein, to urge the president to work more closely with the United Nations and its arms inspectors to give peace a better chance in Iraq.

Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, landing at Saddam International Airport, said he also had a message for all the world's political leaders -- that war "would be the worst solution."

As the papal envoy landed, some of those U.N. inspectors were preparing for the first time to carry out controlled destruction of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction -- leftover artillery shells filled with mustard gas.

The 10 shells had been located by a U.N. team in December at the al-Muthanna State Establishment, in the desert 40 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraq's most important chemical weapons research and production facility in the 1980s. The shells were uncovered by earlier U.N. inspectors in the 1990s, but they failed to destroy them.

They remain the only weapons of mass destruction secured thus far in Iraq by the teams of U.N. experts who began their work in November. Chemical specialists, with Iraqi counterparts, will eliminate the lethal gas-filled munitions over four or five days beginning today, the U.N. inspection agency said.

Before leaving Rome, Cardinal Etchegaray, often a diplomatic troubleshooter for the Vatican, said Pope John Paul II had decided to explore "the last limits of hope" in the Iraq crisis. The pontiff has spoken out against the threat of a U.S.-led war against Iraq.

"In the name of the pope, I come first to encourage the Iraqi authorities in their cooperation," he told reporters on his arrival. "War should be the last of the solutions."

He said the pope was doing all he could to improve "the chances for peace."

The French prelate was met at the airport by the Iraqi justice minister, Munthir al-Shawi. It was not known when he might meet with Saddam.

Security Council resolutions adopted since Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War have prohibited chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs in Iraq, and limit its missiles to a 95-mile range.

Inspectors in the 1990s oversaw destruction of the bulk of chemical and biological weapons, and dismantled Iraq's program to try to build nuclear weapons. The inspections resumed last November, after a four-year gap, to search for any remaining weapons or revived programs.