Vatican City - British Prime Minister Tony Blair discussed the future of the European Union and developments in the Middle East during a farewell visit to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Saturday. The visit came just days before Blair was due to step down from his post and amid speculation that he will soon announce his conversion to Catholicism.
"Welcome, it is nice to see you again," Benedict was quoted by the Ansa news agency as telling Blair, who answered by expressing his thanks to the pontiff.
The private audience lasted about half an hour and focussed on the Middle East, decisions taken at the EU summit in Brussels earlier on Saturday as well Blair's "significant contributions" during his 10 years in office, a Vatican statement said.
The meeting was Blair's second with Pope Benedict and his third to the Vatican in four years.
No mention was made in public of the Anglican premier's plans to convert to the Roman Catholic Church. However, Blair added fuel to the speculation by gifting the pope with photographs of a 19th century English cardinal, John Henry Newman, who famously converted to Catholicism.
Benedict and Blair were then joined by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, and Blair's wife Cherie, who is Roman Catholic.
Blair, 54, had arrived at the Vatican after attending a fraught EU summit in Brussels that only reached a deal in the early hours of the morning.
"We had a very long night. We finished at 530 this morning," Blair was quoted as telling the 80-year-old pontiff.
While Blair's interest in Catholicism is well documented - the family regularly attends Catholic Mass together - sources in London and Rome have played down suggestions that the premier's planned conversion would be announced on Saturday.
"Conversion is a strictly personal and private matter," a Vatican spokesman told The Times of London ahead of the meeting.
Ostentatious religion does not go down well in Britain, whose 25 million Anglicans and 4.2 million Roman Catholics regard their Christian faith as a private matter.
Blair is also said to be discussing the possibility of being made an envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the Quartet - which is composed of the United States, the United Nations, the EU and Russia - and of promoting inter-religious dialogue after he leaves Downing Street on Wednesday.
