Pope calls for peace and justice in 1998

Pope John Paul said on Thursday that justice was essential if peace was to be achieved, Italian RAI teletext reported.

Speaking at a New Year's Day Mass in St Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Pope said that "justice and peace go hand in hand" .

"The search for peace cannot be divorced from the duty to bring about justice," the pontiff was quoted as saying.

The teletext said John Paul II was addressing individuals and families, but also made a special appeal to heads of state.

It was the duty of heads of state to "strive to ensure that all individuals and all nations are accorded the same rights" .

"These are responsibilities that no-one can shirk.

They are not distant ideals but intrinsic values in the heart of each person," he was quoted as saying.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.