Street Clashes Mark Haider's Vatican Visit

VATICAN CITY, Dec. 16 (AP) - Police firing tear gas pushed back demonstrators trying to march to St. Peter's Square Saturday to protest Pope John Paul II's meeting with an Austrian right-wing politician known for anti-immigrant views.

Several thousand leftists shouting ``Nazi!'' and ``Fascist!'' gathered at Castel Sant'Angelo near the Vatican to protest Joerg Haider's visit, which has provoked an angry reaction as well from Jewish groups. In the past, Haider has praised some Nazi policies, though he later apologized for the comments.

John Paul held a private audience earlier with Haider and an Austrian bishop. Though the Vatican had hinted the pontiff might upbraid the politician for his hardline stances, John Paul voiced no criticism in brief public remarks, and Haider said he received a ``warm welcome'' from the pope.

The confrontations in the street came afterward, during a ceremony in St. Peter's Square to light the Christmas tree donated to the Vatican by the Austrian region of Carinthia, where Haider is governor - the reason for his visit to the Holy See.

Several hundred protesters, many garbed for battle in helmets, tried to force their way up the broad avenue leading to the square. They carried a big sign bearing a picture of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz and the words: ``Never again.''

Some demonstrators fired Roman candle firecrackers at police, others lobbed stones. Police responded with volleys of tear gas, keeping the crowd 500 yards from the piazza, where Haider was attending the tree lighting. The pope was not present. The demonstration broke up 30 minutes after the ceremony ended.

Haider ignored the protesters outside as he addressed the ceremony, speaking in Italian and dressed in traditional Austrian lederhosen. The light of the tree, he said, ``shines for all those excluded from the well-being of our civilization.''

A phalanx of police officers then escorted him to his nearby hotel. Helicopters buzzed overhead, part of the extremely tight security that surrounded Haider throughout his visit.

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