Pope Benedict XVI on Monday thanked Italy's foreign minister Franco Frattini for bringing to Italy for medical treatment nearly thirty Iraqis who were injured in the deadly attack last month against a Catholic church in Baghdad.

The 31 October assault killed almost 60 people including two priests and injured scores. It was claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked militant group and was condemned by Benedict as "senseless" and ''ferocious". Many Muslims also denounced the killings.

Frattini said on Friday that Italy had transported 26 people wounded in the attack from Iraq to Rome aboard a military aircraft.

The wounded were due to receive treatment in a Rome hospital, Frattini said. The airlift followed a request from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state.

Frattini had accompanied a group of Italian ski instructors for the papal audience on Monday. The ski instructors presented the 83-year-old pontiff with a white ski suit emblazoned with the word 'Maestro' ('Master'), a pair of skis, and a wooden statue of the early Christian legendary 'Madonna of the Snow'.

Iraq's approximately 500,000 remaining Christians fear pograms after further deadly bombings targeting Iraqi Christians since last month's attack on Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, one of the city's main churches.

Most want to flee the country, observers say.

AKI