Bush Doing Business As Usual, Along With Protest In Rome On Visit

US President George W Bush drew gasps at the Vatican on Saturday by referring to Pope Benedict XVI as "Sir" instead of the expected "His Holiness".

Meanwhile anti-war protesters gathered in Rome on Saturday as US President George W Bush was to meet Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Pope Benedict XVI, a day after the release of an explosive report detailing secret CIA prisons in Europe.

Bush, who arrived here late on Friday following the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, and a brief stop in Poland, began the day with a courtesy visit to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

Heavy security measures were in force, with some 10 000 police including hundreds in riot gear and scores of armored vehicles deployed in central Rome as helicopters hovered overhead.

Two separate protests, one by the left flank of Prodi's fractious ruling coalition and the other by more hard-line anti-US campaigners, were planned for Saturday afternoon.

Prodi has asked government members of the Refoundation Communist, Italian Communist and Green parties not to join the protest, while party leaders and lawmakers plan to attend.

Italian Welfare Minister Paolo Ferrero of the Refoundation Communist party said on Friday that he would not join the protest out of a "sense of responsibility," while noting: "Bush is a warmonger, I understand those who oppose him."

Military issues are particularly thorny in Italy, such as Rome's tenuous commitment to its mission in Afghanistan and widespread domestic opposition to a plan to enlarge a US military base in northeastern Italy.

Prodi was briefly forced to step down three months ago after losing a foreign policy vote in the Senate, principally over the deployment of 2000 Italian troops in Afghanistan, for lack of support from the far left of his ruling coalition.

Bush said in an interview with the daily La Stampa that he wanted to speak to Prodi about his "difficult choices" in Afghanistan.

"I want to let him know how important the Italian commitment is in Afghanistan, now and in the future," he said.