.c The Associated Press
HAVANA (AP) - Cuba has promised a quick response to Pope John Paul II's appeal for the release of 200 prisoners in the communist island country, Vatican officials said Sunday.
The officials, traveling with the pope on his five-day visit to Cuba, said they were assured Sunday that the request was being "attentively studied.''
While John Paul was meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday, Vatican officials in Havana presented petitions for the release of about 200 prisoners.
Several of them were jailed for political crimes, according to human rights groups.
AP-NY-01-25-98 1823EST