VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II appealed again for a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Iraq and sent a high-level envoy to Baghdad to press for greater Iraqi cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors.

Cardinal Roger Etchegaray left for Baghdad Feb. 10 on a mission to "help the Iraqi authorities make a serious reflection on the duty of effective international cooperation, based on justice and international law, in view of assuring the supreme gift of peace to its people," a Vatican statement said.

Cardinal Etchegaray said he planned to deliver a personal message from the pope to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The move was welcomed by U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Jim Nicholson, who told Catholic News Service Feb. 10 that "if there's anyone that might be able to get Hussein to listen to reason, it might be the pope."

"We welcome the engagement of the Holy Father as a positive force in trying to get Saddam Hussein to comply with the U.N. resolutions and to protect his people and the rest of the world from war. The decision really rests with him," Nicholson said.

The Vatican's diplomatic move, announced Feb. 9, came a day after the pope warned that "peace is in danger."

"We need to multiply our efforts. One cannot be immobile in the face of terrorist attacks, nor when faced with the threats that are being raised on the horizon. One should not give up, as if war is inevitable," he said Feb. 8 in a speech to the Sant'Egidio Community, an Italian lay group that has worked for peace around the world.

Cardinal Etchegaray, an 80-year-old Frenchman and the former head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was accompanied on his mission by Msgr. Franco Coppola, an official of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

In an interview with the Rome newspaper La Repubblica, Cardinal Etchegaray said the pope's aim was to promote any possible avenue of preserving peace in the region.

"War would be a catastrophe in every respect. Above all, it would have grave consequences for the Iraqi population and would also make it increasingly difficult for the United Nations to work for the unity of the human family," Cardinal Etchegaray said.

The cardinal said a war would aggravate relations between the West and Muslim countries.

The pope was due to meet with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz Feb. 14, and Vatican officials have engaged in meetings with foreign officials -- publicized and unpublicized -- in an effort to help defuse the crisis.

On Feb. 18, the pope was scheduled to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss the Iraqi crisis, Vatican officials said.

Last fall, the pope wrote to U.S. President George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, making the arguments for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. In recent weeks, Vatican officials have strongly warned against a pre-emptive military attack on Iraq, especially if it were carried out without U.N. authorization.

In his talk to the Sant'Egidio group, the pope said it was increasingly important to announce "the Gospel of peace to a humanity strongly tempted by hatred and violence." He said dialogue was the real path to peace, and that prayers were important, too.

Although he did not refer explicitly to the situation in Iraq, he cited the biblical account of the patriarch Abraham's appeal to God to spare the cities and innocent populations of his land from destruction. In the passage, Abraham asks whether God will "sweep the innocent away with the guilty."

"With the same insistence we need to continue to invoke the gift of peace for humanity," the pope said. He noted that Abraham, whose native land is part of modern Iraq, is considered the "common father in the faith" by monotheistic religions.

At a noon blessing Feb. 9, the pope returned to the theme of peace and urged prayer initiatives around the world.

"In this hour of international concern, we all feel the need to turn to the Lord to implore the great gift of peace," he said.

The pope quoted from his recent apostolic letter on the rosary, saying that global problems today make it appear that "only an intervention from on high" will bring hope for a better future.