POPE OPTIMISTIC OVER IRAN'S COOPERATION WITH INT'L COMMUNITY

POPE OPTIMISTIC OVER IRAN'S COOPERATION WITH INT'L COMMUNITY

(ANSA) - Vatican City, October 29 - Pope Benedict XVI voiced optimism in Iran's willingness to cooperate with the international community during a meeting on Thursday with Tehran's new ambassador to the Holy See.

The pope also told Ali Akbar Naseri that Iran's tradition of spirituality was ''a reason to hope for its increasing openness and confident cooperation with the international community''.

The pope was presumably referring to Iran's new willingness to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on its contested nuclear power programme.

Benedict also told Naseri that while the Vatican was eager to ''consolidate its ties with the Islamic Republic,'' it was also keen to see Tehran do more to improve the rights of the country's Christian minority.

Naseri conveyed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appreciation for Benedict's commitment to ''spread love, justice, refusal of oppression and defence of the persecuted'' and he urged the Vatican and Iran to work together to fight ''atheism, materialism, idolatry and moral and social ills''.

In his reply to Benedict, Naseri said his country respected IAEA's indications and international rules on atomic energy as well as ''the fair policies aimed at banning nuclear weapons worldwide and in the crucial Mideast region''.

Iran, however, takes issue with the policies of ''two weights and two measures'' adopted by certain countries ''which boycott or hinder Iran's peaceful nuclear activities'' while sustaining those of nuclear-equipped countries which ''in no way comply to international rules'' on the issue, said Naseri.