VATICAN CITY, April 16 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI's Easter message in Rome called for "honest and serious negotiations" to end the international row over Iran's nuclear plans.
Iran began enriching uranium it says is for peaceful energy needs despite complaints from the United States and others.
U.S. war contingency plans against Iran were made public recently, further deepening the disagreement.
The pope also said Israel has a right to exist, a direct response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has continued to call for the destruction of Israel, the BBC said.
The traditional Easter Sunday speech -- the new Pope's first -- was given at Rome's St. Peter's Square to a crowd of 100,000 and broadcast to 50 countries, the BBC said.
He called for an independent Palestinian state, an end to the violence in Iraq and an intervention in Sudan, where a genocide continues and living conditions worsen.
The pope also called for "harmony" in Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is disputing the results of last week's election where the unofficial tally shows his party lost.
