Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has scrapped a planned appearance at a conference on family values in Milan next week, amid reports of encounters with a prostitute and his ties to an under-age Moroccan girl.

Catholics’ thoughts turned to who might replace their beloved pope as the cardinals, silenced by an unprecedented pledge to not reveal their thinking, prepared to meet again today to plan next week’s conclave to select a new leader to replace John Paul II.

Those in the running to succeed Pope John Paul II are known as the “papabili” – those worthy of becoming Pontiff. Prominent among them are:

SOME Vatican insiders say that when cardinals come to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II they may prefer to return to a safe Italian candidate, like the vast majority of past pontiffs.