Tony Blair will fly off to meet the Pope this weekend amid mounting speculation he will convert to Roman Catholicism on leaving office.

The Prime Minister, who will be five days away from departing Downing Street, is expected to discuss the environment and Middle East, raising the possibility that Mr Blair will use the opportunity to discuss a new interfaith foundation with the Pontiff.

In an interview with the Prime Minister in tomorrow’s Times, Mr Blair talks about this desire to set up an interfaith foundation but declines to say for certain whether he will convert to Catholicism. “I’m slightly nervous talking about it because I won’t have met him by the time this is published,” he says.

Asked if he is going to convert to Catholicism, he adds: “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s difficult with some of these things. Things aren’t always as resolved as they might be.”

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Speaking on French TV, Tony Blair sang the praises of the EU and sketched his agenda for its future, all in fluent French

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The meeting with the Pope, at the end of the EU summit, has not been formally confirmed by No 10, and last night a spokesman for the Prime Minister said the meeting was still “pure speculation”.

Mr Blair says that he wants to devote “real time” to heal perceived rifts between different faiths after he leaves office. “I will keep an interest in climate change and Africa and I am interested in the interfaith idea. And I will retain a strong interest in the Middle East.”

Last night it was claimed that Mr Blair will go directly from his audience with Benedict XVI to a lunch hosted by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor at the Venerable English College in Rome, accompanied by his wife, Cherie, a Catholic. He will be the first serving Prime Minister to set foot in the college.

Last month The Times revealed that Father Michael Seed, who is known for bringing prominent politicians and aristocrats into the Catholic fold and who says Mass for the Blairs in Downing Street each week when they are in London, predicted to friends that Blair would become a Catholic. He later modified his comments to suggest he was unsure whether Mr Blair would ever be received “formally” into the Catholic Church.