Rome, Nov 3 : A leading Leonardo Da Vinci scholar has spoke in favor of dismantling a 12-volume collection of work by the Renaissance genius.

According to a report by news agency Ansa. it, the scholar in question is Carlo Pedretti, who has been a leading Leonardo scholar for nearly six decades.

Commenting on plans to reverse a controversial 1970s restoration project, which would leave the Codex Atlanticus as a bundle of loose pages, Pedretti said that he approved of the proposal.

Vatican City  - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated All Saints Day Saturday by urging the faithful to follow the example of the Christian martyrs and other men and women who dedicated their lives to God.

Benedict made the appeal when he delivered the noon Angelus blessing before thousands of people gathered in St Peter's Square.

Among those present were participants in the "Race of the Saints" a 10 kilometre run through Rome in which the Italian capital's Mayor Gianni Alemanno also took part.

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI met Friday with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and expressed hope for the safeguard of Lebanon's "peculiar identity", the Vatican said.

Talks between Benedict and Suleiman, the Maronite Christian president of the majority Muslim nation, lasted for 25 minutes with St Peter's Square closed off to the public amid tight security.

Benedict conveyed his "appreciation for the efforts" made by Lebanese leaders to restore their Middle East nation along "the rails of a normal political dialectic," the Vatican said in a statement.

Suleiman took office in May following intense wrangling between Lebanon's political and religious factions.

Rome - Italy's largest natural gas and oil company, Eni, said Friday its third-quarter net profit rose 37 per cent thanks to soaring crude oil prices and boosted production.

Net profit increased to 2.94 billion euros (dollars 3.83 billion) from the 2.15 billion euros registered in the same period in 2007, Eni said in a statement.

"Eni has delivered another quarter of excellent results driven by strong production growth and good operational performance in all our divisions," Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni said in the statement.

Rome - Italy "probably helped save" Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's life when it warned Libya of a 1986 US air strike, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said Thursday.

Shalgam's claim, made at a conference in Rome, referred to an April 15, 1986 operation in which the then US president, Ronald Reagan, ordered several attacks against Libya, the ANSA news agency reported.

Shalgam, who was Libya's ambassador to Rome at the time, said he was personally warned of the US intentions a day before the raids took place by "mutual friend" sent by Italy's then prime minister, Bettino Craxi.

Rome - Libyan President Moamer Gaddafi is welcome to visit Italy where he would be received as a friend, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said Thursday, according to news reports.

"If the leader of the Libyan revolution desires to visit Italy we will greet him with friendship, as one would with a friend," Frattini was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

The Italian foreign minister, made the remarks on the margins of a conference in Rome examining a friendship agreement signed in August by Gaddafi and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in Benghazi, Libya.