Belo meets Sampaio

Belo meets Sampaio

LISBON (AFP): Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the bishop of Dili in East Timor and the co-winner last year of the Nobel Peace Prize, held talks Monday with Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio.

After the meeting, Belo said he went to Belem palace to thank Sampaio for going in person to Oslo for the ceremony at which he and East Timor self-exiled separatist leader Jose Ramos-Horta were presented with the Nobel award.

Belo said he had agreed to accept "when the time is ripe" the Order of Freedom award bestowed on him and Ramos-Horta by the president.

"Now is not the time because I have not come to Portugal for that. The purpose of my trip is to go to Fatima," he said.

The bishop of Dili was scheduled to lead the pilgrimage of the Salesian order to which he belongs to the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima for the commemoration Tuesday of the 80th anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to three young shepherds.

He is due to leave Portugal on May 24 for the United States where he will take part in a conference of U.S. bishops.