Pope's new deputy backs UN as world peacemaker

VATICAN CITY, Sep 3 (Reuters) The man appointed by Pope Benedict to be his new secretary of state has given his strong support to the United Nations as a peacemaker and said the Church also had a role in mediating to stop conflicts.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who becomes what is often dubbed the ''deputy pope'' on September 15, said in a newspaper interview today that the Vatican had ''great faith in the role of the UN and the international organisations involved in resolving conflicts''.

In an interview with La Repubblica daily, Bertone said the United Nations was ''always in the front line for the values of living together and mediation'' and he backed Italy's military support for the Lebanon peace keeping mission.

''In the past we have already seen what Italian soldiers are capable of. They were, for example, in Kosovo, in Serbia ... I have seen how much good well our countrymen have done for those populations,'' said the former archbishop of Genoa.

The appointment of the 71-year-old Bertone was one of the most important in a series of changes Benedict has made in the Vatican's hierarchy since becoming Pope in April 2005.

Bertone, who takes over from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, will oversee the Vatican's relations with countries around the world.

He said the Church had a calling to mediate between conflicting parties.

''The Church talks to everyone and tries to perform its mission with all, even dictators,'' he said, defending Pope John Paul's visits to Chile and Argentina in the 1980s.

REUTERS LL BST1509