Pope Benedict XVI has refused a recent request by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to meet for a discussion on the Middle East and Iraq, Vatican sources have reported.

The Pope refused the request which asked for an audience during the August holidays.

The BBC reports that the Pope generally does not receive politicians on his annual holiday at the Castelgandolfo residence near Rome, while one Italian newspaper speculated that the refusal was a snub from the Pope towards the Bush administration.

Relations between the US administration and the Vatican have been patchy since before the outbreak of the Iraq war in March 2003 when Rice told a special papal envoy that the Bush administration was not interested in what the late Pope had to say on the immorality of the US launching its planned military offensive and this may also have contributed to the latest refusal to meet Rice.

In addition, there are murmurs of discontent directed against the US at not adequately securing the protection of the rights of Iraqi Christians under the new Iraqi constitution - something that is unacceptable to the Vatican.

The US said that as coalition forces have not yet secured all of Iraq, it would be unable to offer full protection to religious minorities in the country at this stage.

The Vatican did, however, arrange a telephone conversation between Rice and the Vatican's number two, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.