Tight security as Pope arrives in Lebanon with message of peace

The three-day visit comes as a civil war rages in neighbouring Syria and follows the deadly mob attack on Americans in Libya.

Benedict XVI was welcomed by leaders including the Lebanese president, prime minister and parliament speaker as well as Christian and Muslim religious leaders. Cannons fired a 21-shots salute.

The Pope told reporters on his flight to Lebanon that imports of weapons to Syria wa a “grave sin”. Syria’s rebels have appealed for weapons shipments to help them fight the regime.

The visit brings the Pope to the nation with the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East – nearly 40 per cent of Lebanon’s four million people, with Maronite Catholics the largest sect. Lebanon is the only Arab country with a Christian head of state.

Lebanese authorities introduced stringent security measures, suspending weapons permits except for politicians’ bodyguards and confining the papal visit to central Lebanon and the northern Christian areas.

Army and police patrols were stationed along the airport road, which was decorated with Lebanese and Vatican flags as well as posters of the Pope and “welcome” signs in different languages.

Benedict told reporters on the plane he was not afraid to visit Lebanon. He also described the Arab Spring that has already removed four long-serving dictators as “positive”.

The Pope said he never considered cancelling the trip for security reasons, adding that “no one ever advised (me) to renounce this trip and personally, I have never considered this”.

Benedict, the third pope to visit Lebanon after Paul VI in 1964 and John Paul II in 1997, denounced religious fundamentalism, calling it “a falsification of religion”.