ARABS-ISRAEL - Feb. 16 - 'Dispute With Vatican Won't Affect Pope's Visit'.

Former Israeli PM Shimon Peres says Israel's dispute with the Vatican over a Vatican-Palestinian agreement will not affect the pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Holy Land sites in March. Peres, who now is minister of regional co-operation in the Cabinet of PM Barak, says: "We shall receive the pope as a spiritual leader - one of the greatest spiritual leaders of our time". The agreement, signed between the Vatican and the PLO on Feb. 15, does not mention Israel by name. But it describes unilateral actions concerning Jerusalem as morally and legally unacceptable. It declares that an equitable solution for Jerusalem is fundamental to a just and lasting peace. Israel accused the Vatican of interfering in currently stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. (Israel occupied east Jerusalem during Arab-Israeli war, then annexed it as part of what it says is its "eternal capital". The move was rejected by the international community, including the Vatican. Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. The issue of the city's future is to be determined in a final peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.) Peres, the architect of interim peace deals with the Palestinians, calls the Vatican-PLO accord regrettable. He says: "I think the Vatican, too, like many institutions, had to wait for the final agreement between us and the Palestinians before [relating] to the Palestinians as an independent state". Earlier, the Israeli foreign ministry summons papal envoy Monsignor Pietro Sambi to what it calls an "urgent" closed-door meeting to protest references to Jerusalem in the agreement. After his meeting, Sambi tells reporters that Israel had misinterpreted the accord, which contained 12 articles, dealing mostly with the Vatican's interests in Palestinian-ruled areas. He says: "There is no reference to the political situation in Jerusalem in the document", adding: "There is only reference to the religious aspect in the city sacred to 3 monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam". (But the agreement calls for an internationally guaranteed special statute for Jerusalem, a measure Israel has long rejected. Such a statute, the accord said, should safeguard "equality before the law of the 3 monotheistic religions" in Jerusalem, "the proper identity and sacred character of the city" and "freedom of access" to holy places. The Israeli government says it already protects freedom of religion in Jerusalem.)