TONY BLAIR arrived in Italy at the weekend for a week-long visit combining a holiday in Tuscany with an audience with the Pope and talks on troop withdrawals from Iraq with the new centre-left Government of Romano Prodi.

The meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday will be Mr Blair’s second official visit to the Vatican. There is persistent speculation that Mr Blair, whose wife, Cherie, is a Roman Catholic, will convert from Anglicanism.

Mr Blair is also expected to discuss a visit to Britain by Pope Benedict, who has been invited by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, but has not yet set a date.

Mr Blair arrived in Tuscany on Saturday to join his wife and family at the estate of Prince Girolamo Guicciardini Strozzi at Cusona, near San Gimignano. It is the Blairs’ ninth trip to Tuscany and their fifth stay on the Strozzi estate, which has a swimming pool, tennis courts and vineyards.

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