Pope meets families of captive Israeli soldiers

VATICAN CITY, Feb 14 (Reuters) Relatives of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas last July took their appeal for the men's freedom to Pope Benedict today.

Five members of the families of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev spoke briefly to the Pope on the sidelines of a weekly general audience.

''It was a very honourable meeting, with a lot of attention from the Pope,'' Shlomo Goldwasser, Ehud's father, told Israel Radio.

The two soldiers were captured in a cross-border Hezbollah raid which triggered a 34-day war in which 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.

Goldwasser said the Pope had already sent a letter to Lebanon asking the captors to release the two men or give some indication of their condition.

''We asked him not to stop the pressure he has begun to put on the humanitarian front, the demand for a sign of life, for proper treatment of the boys,'' Goldwasser said.

''Of course he (the Pope) cannot be involved in the process of winning their release, but we asked that he not stop being involved in the humanitarian aspect.'' An internal Israeli probe has concluded that the two soldiers were seriously wounded during their capture and at least one of them could now be dead.

Hezbollah has ignored a United Nation's call for the immediate release of the soldiers and said Israel must first free Lebanese prisoners and possibly others held in its jails.

REUTERS KD KN1955