From correspondents in Vatican City

June 25, 2007 12:00am

OUTGOING British Prime Minister Tony Blair used his last official engagement before leaving office to tell Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience at the Vatican that he wanted to become a Roman Catholic, a Vatican source said yesterday.

But, in talks lasting more than half an hour, the outgoing PM was left in no doubt that the Pope took a dim view of his record in office, Britain’s Observer newspaper reported.

A statement issued afterwards by the Vatican said there had been a “frank exchange of views”, the paper said. Such sharp language is deemed highly unusual for the Vatican, which frequently describes talks between the Pope and other heads of state and government as “cordial”.

Vatican sources told the Observer the Pope was unmoved in his view that Mr Blair had been wrong over Iraq. More so than his predecessor, Pope Benedict feels that Catholic politicians cannot separate their public lives from their private, it said.

The meeting with the pontiff came four days before Mr Blair leaves office after agreeing to resign amid the British public’s dissatisfaction with the country’s involvement in the US-led war in Iraq.

Mr Blair’s successor, former chancellor Gordon Brown, was confirmed as Labour Party leader overnight, the first step in a new political era which starts when he becomes prime minister on Wednesday.

Mr Blair’s wife and their four children are Catholic. Over his 10 years in office there have been frequent media reports that Mr Blair, an Anglican, planned to join his family’s faith.

Mr Blair told The Times newspaper on Saturday that the question of his converting to Roman Catholicism had not been entirely “resolved”.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said.

“It’s difficult with some of these things. Things aren’t always as resolved as they might be.”

Mr Blair reportedly regularly attends Catholic mass with his family at Chequers, the country retreat of British prime ministers northwest of London. Britain has never had a Catholic prime minister, though there is no longer a constitutional prohibition.

The Guardian newspaper on Friday cited unnamed sources saying Mr Blair had been prepared for conversion by a priest who for the past four years had been visiting Chequers quietly to say mass for the Blair family on Saturday evenings.

Despite much speculation about his religious beliefs, Mr Blair has rarely commented on the issue, with his press spokesman, Alistair Campbell, once telling reporters: “We don’t do God.”

AFP