On Sfeir's visit to Damascus

The Maronite patriarch Nasrullah Sfeir will pay a visit to the Vatican before the Pope John Paul II will head for Syria on May 4 to discuss the possibility of the participation of the "head of the Maronite Church" in welcoming the Pope in Damascus.

The London- based al-Hayat daily said on Monday that the Vatican circles do not pressure Sfeir in order to go to Syria and leave this decision for him.