HIEDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Pope John Paul II is urging leaders worldwide to do all they can to avoid war with Iraq. His call for peace follows a meeting yesterday with Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz. CNN's Rome bureau chief, Alessio Vinci, joins us now live from the heart of one of the largest rallies expected today. Hi, Alessio.</s>ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Heidi, from Rome. There are a lot of people here in this city demonstrating for peace. Organizers say as many as one million people arrived here. Authorities are so far withholding the official number. But I can tell you that I've been standing here for the last two hours, and it does look like a constant flow of people. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people walking by us. All of them in a very good mood, despite the fact that they're protesting against something as serious as war. As you can probably hear, they're playing loud music. We have seen a lot of people dancing; a lot of people kissing each other, jumping around. Really not be proud, despite the fact that all of the people here of course are united by the same</s>COLLINS: All right. Alessio Vinci joining us from Rome today, thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Pope John Paul II Urges Leaders To Avoid War With Iraq