A Vatican representative arrived in Cuba this week to begin making plans for next year's visit by Pope John Paul II, Cuba's official Prensa Latina news service said.

In a dispatch monitored in Mexico City, Prensa Latina said Tuesday that the Italian priest, the Rev.
Roberto Tucci, arrived to tour the sites the pope will visit during his Jan. 21-25 trip.

President Fidel Castro and the pope met in Rome in November, paving the way for the pontiff's first visit to the island.

Among the places Tucci will visit will be sites where the pope is tentatively scheduled to celebrate Mass: Havana, the central provincial city of Santa Clara and the eastern cities of Camaguey and Santiago.

Cuba's ruling Communist Party is officially atheist, but in recent years it has eased its restrictions on religious observances.

The Vatican has attached conditions to the papal visit, including greater liberty for the church in Cuba and permission for foreign priests to aid the island's 200 clergymen.

\Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald