BENEDICT

VATICAN CITY (Reuters):

Pope Benedict warned yesterday of a possible nuclear weapons crisis and urged North Korea and Iran to reduce tensions through negotiations.

"In the area of disarmament, symptoms of a developing crisis are multiplying, linked to difficulties in negotiations over conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction," the Pope said in his New Year "state of the world" address.

The 79-year-old German Pontiff called on North Korea to pursue talks over its testing and urged Iran to accept what he called legitimate pleas to negotiate over its nuclear programme.

No compromise

"Dangerous sources of tension are lurking in the Korean peninsula. The goal of reconciling the Korean people and maintaining the peninsula as a nuclear-free zone ... must be pursued within the context of negotiations."

North Korea needed to "avoid gestures that could compromise" peace efforts, he said in an apparent reference to reports that Pyongyang might be preparing for a second atomic test.

In a traditional New Year's speech to diplomats accredited to the Vatican from more than 170 countries, the Pope said the Middle East was "a source of great anxiety" and Iran should agree "to give a satisfactory response to the legitimate concerns of the international community" over its nuclear aims.

"Steps taken in this direction surely help to stabilise the whole region, especially Iraq, putting an end to the appalling violence which disfigures that country with bloodshed," he said.

TEHRAN PRESSURE

The U.N. security council voted to impose sanctions to pressure Tehran to halt nuclear activities Washington says are aimed a developing a nuclear bomb — a charge Iran denies.

The Pope condemned Israel's 34-day war with Lebanon last year which he said was an example of how "armed solutions achieve nothing".

He urged greater openness towards Cuba whose ailing leader Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since July. He repeated calls by his predecessor John Paul II to "let Cuba open itself to the world, and let the world open itself to Cuba".