VATICAN CITY -- When Vatican officials opened their copies of the best-selling Italian Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana in early February, they winced a little.

An insert in the magazine showed Pope John Paul II and President George W. Bush sitting back-to-back. Under the heading: "Whose side are you on? With Bush or with the pope?" the magazine was asking readers to vote in a referendum on a new war in Iraq.

That kind of juxtaposition of Bush and the pope has made Vatican officials uncomfortable. While opposing a preventive attack on Iraq, the Vatican is worried that it is being mistakenly cast as a foe of the United States and a friend of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Privately, Vatican officials often begin statements about Iraq with the phrase, "I'm not defending Saddam Hussein. ..." They credit his government with protecting the rights of Iraq's Christian minority, but they recognize that his overall human rights record is atrocious.

Moreover, they tend to put most of the blame for the current crisis on Saddam, for failing to demonstrate unequivocally that his regime has stopped trying to develop weapons of mass destruction.

"The Vatican opposes a new war, and it has made this clear to the United States. But at this stage in the crisis, the ball is in Saddam Hussein's court," one Vatican official said Feb. 14.

What should Saddam do?

"Go away. And if he's not going to do that, show the kind of cooperation required by the inspection team," the official said.

The Vatican's public diplomatic moves have sometimes left the impression of a growing gulf between the Holy See and the United States. The pope met with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and planned a session with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- all strong opponents of a preventive attack on Iraq.

At the same time, the pope sent a personal envoy to Baghdad to show his solidarity with the Iraqi people.

But church officials said it would be a mistake to presume that diplomatic dialogue with the United States has been cut off or downgraded. Flying in under the media radar in early February were two U.S. officials from the State Department and Department of Defense, who briefed Vatican counterparts on the U.S. reasons for war.

Vatican officials indicated there also had been phone calls between the Secretariat of State and "higher levels" of the U.S. government in recent days.

The Aziz visit put the Vatican in a bit of a corner. The day before his arrival in Rome, Aziz described Bush as a "new Hitler" trying to dominate the world. The fact that Aziz, a Catholic, was being hosted by Franciscan friars in Assisi for a day of antiwar activities also raised Vatican eyebrows.

The terse Vatican statement issued after Aziz's papal audience aimed for balance. The Vatican repeated its arguments against war, but pointedly called for Iraq to respect with "concrete commitments" the U.N. resolution on disarmament.

The day before Aziz's arrival, Cardinal Roberto Tucci divulged to Vatican Radio an episode that illustrates the Vatican's uneasy relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime.

A few years ago, Cardinal Tucci was attempting to plan a papal trip to the birthplace of Abraham in what is now part of modern Iraq. It was to be the first stage of the pope's Holy Year pilgrimage to the roots of the faith, and because Abraham is also respected by Muslims as a prophet and patriarch the Vatican foresaw no big problems.

But when Cardinal Tucci got to Baghdad, a committee of Iraqi officials told him that the pope's "Judeo-Christian vision" of his pilgrimage was in error, and that it had to be corrected in light of Islamic interpretation. They also said Iraq would have trouble guaranteeing the pope's safety because of continuing U.S. and British patrols over the two no-fly zones.

It soon became apparent that Iraq did not want the visit, and Cardinal Tucci left without ever meeting with Saddam to work out the problems.

Vatican officials say they have no illusions that the Holy See may be able to mediate the current crisis in some way. In fact, by mid-February many at the Vatican seemed resigned to the idea that war was about to come to Iraq.

Instead of expecting the Vatican to pull off a diplomatic miracle, they said, people should anticipate spiritual initiatives from the pope, such as a new call for days of fasting and prayer for peace.