LEBANON said yesterday it had been warned about a plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II during his visit there last weekend.
"Beirut Interpol bureau received telegrams on Friday, May 9th, from Europe saying that some groups prepared a military operation using rockets against the Pope during his visit to Lebanon," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
"All security and military organs took the necessary measures to prevent any criminal act from occurring," it added.
The statement followed reports in the Beirut press that a group planned to blow up the Pope's plane with surface-to-air missiles. Beirut Interpol bureau was tipped off by Italian Interpol that a Palestinian group had bought 23 or 24 rockets including some surface-to-air missiles from a Chinese gang to carry out the plan, an-Nahar newspaper quoted official sources as saying.
The Vatican spokesman, Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls, declined to comment on the report. It came on the 16th anniversary of the near-fatal shooting of the Pope in St Peter's Square on May 13th, 1981, by a Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca.
"One more time, I confirm that it is not our policy to make comments on reports that concern issues of security, whether these reports are justified or not," Dr Navarro-Valls said.
The Italian Interior Ministry had no immediate comment.
The Pope's trip to Sarajevo in mid-April was marred by the discovery shortly before his arrival of anti-tank mines planted under a bridge on his route into the city. The devices were removed.
There have also been repeated, unsourced reports in Italy since the Sarajevo visit that a Muslim extremist assassination squad was preparing an attack on the Pontiff in Rome.
The information received in Beirut from Italian Interpol on Friday was attributed to Italian police which in turn attributed its information to Canadian police, an-Nahar said.
By Friday afternoon, the Lebanese Interpol had received two telegrams from Italian Interpol warning against an attempt on the Pope's life by a "terrorist group - the army of God".
Later information pointed to the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, saying it had recently bought 24 missiles from a Chinese gang to carry out the plan. Hamas said the report was a fabrication.
"This [the accusation] is fabricated and it is part of the war against the Islamic movement and Muslims. Hamas's strategy is to resist the enemy on its land " a leader of the group in Gaza, Mr Saiyed Abu Musameh, said.
"The Pope is a religious symbol and we respect any religious symbols. We respect him and condemn any attempt to target him," he added.
Beirut newspaper, ad-Diyar, quoted diplomatic sources in Rome as saying that an armed group received a shipment of 23 rockets in an area between Cyprus and Crete.