Bush and Pope to tread softly at first meeting

Pope John Paul II was today opening the doors of his hilltop summer residence to US president George W Bush during their first meeting - but neither intended to raise touchy issues of capital punishment or embryonic stem cell research.

Bush, putting the weekend Genoa summit and its violent protests behind him, did not plan to ask the Pontiff about a thorny decision awaiting back home: whether to permit federal funds for potentially breakthrough medical research on stem cells from human embryos.