The Vatican today dismissed suggestions that Tony Blair would use his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow mornng to announce his conversion to Roman Catholicism.

“Conversion is a strictly personal and private matter” a Vatican spokesman told The Times. “We do not enter into it”. He said it was possible that Mr Blair would advise the pontiff privately whether or not he intended to convert after leaving office, “but that is a matter for him”. The agenda for the audience includes world problems from Africa to the Middle East, and Mr Blair’s plans for an Inter Faith Foundation.

The Vatican spokesman noted that Mr Blair would in any case still be Prime Minister when he meets the pontiff. Vatican sources said that although the Duchess of Kent formally advised Pope John Paul II of her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1994, she did so only after she had already announced the move publicly.

Some reports suggest Mr Blair will announce his conversion - or intention to convert - after handing over to Gordon Brown next week. In an interview to be published in The Times this weekend Mr Blair, asked if he is going to convert to Catholicism, replied “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.” The Vatican said the Pope was scheduled to meet Mr Blair at 11.00am “to say farewell”.

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The Pope would normally allocate “about fifteen minutes” to such an encounter, but was likely to give Mr Blair longer “given that this is his final visit as Prime Minister”, officials said. Mr Blair will subsequently hold talks with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State (Vatican Prime Minister).

Cherie Blair, who is a Roman Catholic, would not take part in the talks but would meet the Pope before or afterwards, diplomats said. There will be no mass in the papal chapel, as on some past visits, but the Pope is likely to join the couple in a “private prayer” before they leave.

There is concern that the Brussels EU summit might overrun and thus interfere with Mr Blair’s Rome agenda. However diplomats said Mr Blair would keep the Vatican appointment “come what may.” “You do not stand up the Holy Father” one diplomatic source said.

The Vatican encounter will be followed by lunch at the Venerable English College, the ancient seminary in Rome for English Catholic priests. Mr Blair often attends Catholic services already, and is said on at least one occasion to have received the Eucharist in the papal chapel despite still being an Anglican.

Before he became Prime Minister, Mr Blair regularly took Communion with his wife and children at a Catholic church in Islington but reluctantly stopped doing so after objections from the late Cardinal Hume.

Mr Blair is said to have discussed possible conversion to Catholicism over a long period of time with Canon Timothy Russ, the priest whose parish includes Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat, Father John Walsh, an RAF chaplain, and Father Michael Seed, a Westminster priest who has become unofficial spiritual adviser to Downing Street.

Father Seed told The Times last month May that Mr Blair was preparing to convert but later amended this, saying he did not know if Mr Blair would “formally” enter the Catholic Church.

Mr Blair’s meeting with the Pope will be his third visit to the Vatican in four years. However Mr Blair’s views while in office on issues from abortion to stem cell research would appear to be at variants with papal teaching.