Keppel secures contracts worth S$200m from repeat customers

SINGAPORE : Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M), a unit of Keppel Corp, said its subsidiaries have secured two contracts worth a combined value of S$200 million from repeat customers.

In a filing with the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday, Keppel Corp said its Brazil subsidiary, Keppel FELS Brasil, secured a contract with MODEC and Toyo Offshore Production Systems to integrate the topside modules of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit.

Integration works for the FPSO will take place from the third quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2015.

The project will be carried out at BrasFELS, Keppel FELS Brasil's yard in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In Singapore, Keppel Shipyard won a contract from SBM Offshore to build an internal turret for a newbuild FPSO. Work on the project is scheduled to complete by the third quarter of 2014.

Keppel did not provide a breakdown of individual contract values.

- CNA/ms

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Why you shouldn't expect an all-metal Nokia Lumia anytime soon

Nokia's Lumia 520 is the cheapest Lumia yet in video

BARCELONA, Spain--Part of what makes Nokia phones like the Lumia 920 and new Lumia 720, and Lumia 520 so distinctive are its bright color options, and part of what makes those shades pop is the use of polycarbonate, a type of plastic, as the body material.

Although Nokia hasn't ruled out an all-metal body, speaking with Hans Henrik Lund, Nokia's vice president of product marketing for smart devices at Mobile World Congress, makes me think that we won't be seeing metal Lumias anytime soon.

"The important part for us is that we're obsessed with differentiation." Tells how a 9-year-old boy shouted the name "Lumia" and pointed when Lund snapped a photo of Istanbul's Blue Mosque with his yellow
Lumia 920 smartphone.

That kind of brand recognition is certainly achievable with colored metal, but Lund's point is that creating a recognizable product that stands out from the crowd is a central Nokia goal. In other words, expect a phalanx od polycarbonate Lumias to march down the pipeline in the coming months.

I also suspect that cost considerations have a lot to do with the polycarbonate choice. Nokia is focused on offering like-looking Lumias that span the price point from low to high, a plan that metal might muddle.

In addition, many Lumia phones are already weighty enough on their own without adding a potentially heavier material to the often-larger frame and components.

For all we know, metal elements could be in the works for high-end Lumias further out on the road map, but in the meantime, Nokia lovers would be better off embracing the Lumia line's youthful design.

Read even more smartphone news from Mobile World Congress.

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Iran nuclear talks: Both sides say new ideas ready

ALMATY, Kazakhstan World powers began their fourth round of high-level talks with Iranian officials on Tuesday as negotiators from both sides pledged to offer new ways to break a years-long impasse over Tehran's nuclear program and its feared ability to make atomic weapons in the future.

Few believe the latest attempt to reach compromise will yield any major breakthroughs, and negotiators refused to detail what the new solutions might be. Instead, officials described the latest diplomatic discussions as a way to build confidence with Iran as it steadfastly maintains its right to enrich uranium in the face of harsh international sanctions.

"The offer addresses the international concern on the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program, but it is also responsive to Iranian ideas," said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading the negotiations. "We've put some proposals forward which will hopefully allow Iran to show some flexibility."

Mahmoud Mohammedi, a member of the Iranian delegation, said Tehran also is prepared to make an offer of its own to end the impasse, but refused to provide any details.

The Obama administration is pushing for diplomacy to solve the impasse but has not ruled out the possibility of military intervention in Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And Israel has threatened it will use all means to stop Iran from being able to build a bomb, potentially as soon as this summer, raising the specter of a possible Mideast war.

A senior U.S. official at the talks said Monday that some sanctions relief would be part of the offer to Iran but also refused to detail it. The new relief is part of a package the U.S. official said included "substantive changes -- whether you'd call them super-substantial, I'll leave to history." The official acknowledged reports earlier this month that sanctions would be eased to allow Iran's gold trade to progress, but would neither confirm nor deny they are included in the new relief offer, and spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic talks more candidly.

In a statement before the talks began Tuesday afternoon, Interfax news agency cited Russia's envoy as saying easing of sanctions is possible only if Iran can assure the world that its nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes.

"There is no certainty that the Iranian nuclear program lacks a military dimension, although there is also no evidence that there is a military dimension," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

Officials from both sides have set low expectations for a breakthrough in Almaty -- the first time the high-level negotiators have met since last June's meeting in Moscow that threatened to derail the delicate efforts.

The talks are being held in private at a hotel in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, and were deemed so sensitive that reporters were not allowed on the premises Tuesday save, for a small handful of TV cameras and photographers allowed to watch Ashton, who is leading the negotiations, greet Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Tehran maintains it is enriching uranium only to make reactor fuel and medical isotopes, and insists it has a right to do so under international law. It has signaled it does not intend to stop, and U.N. nuclear inspectors last week confirmed Iran has begun a major upgrade of its program at the country's main uranium enrichment site.

Negotiators hope easing some of the sanctions will make Tehran more agreeable to halting production of 20 percent enriched uranium -- the highest grade of enrichment that Iran has acknowledged and one that experts say could be turned into warhead grade in a matter of months. The six world powers -- United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- also want Iran to suspend enrichment in its underground Fordo nuclear facility, and to ship its stockpile of high-grade uranium out of the country.

Over the last eight months, the international community has imposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran that U.S. officials said have, among other things, cut the nation's daily oil output by 1 million barrels and slashed its employment rate. Western powers have hoped that the Iranian public would suffer under sanctions so badly that the government would feel a moral obligation to slow its nuclear program.

But an analysis released Monday by the International Crisis Group concluded that the web of international sanctions have become so entrenched in Iran's political and economic systems that they cannot be easily lifted piece-by-piece. It found that Tehran's clerical regime has begun adapting its policy to the sanctions, despite their crippling effect on the Iranian public. Doing so, the analysis concluded, has divided the public's anger "between a regime viewed as incompetent and an outside world seen as uncaring."

Iran has been unimpressed with earlier offers by the powers to provide it with medical isotopes and lift sanctions on spare parts for civilian airliners, and new bargaining chips that Tehran sees as minor are likely to be snubbed as well. Iran insists, as a starting point, that world powers must recognize the republic's right to enrich uranium.

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Americans Targeted for Allegedly Running Underage Prostitution in Philippines

Arthur Benjamin is sitting at the edge of a small stage, wearing a lavender Hawaiian shirt and nursing a bottle of San Miguel Light beer. The 6-foot-6 mustachioed Texan lazily watches the half dozen or so girls dancing rather unenergetically around the stage's pole.

"I forgot your gift again, it's in the car," Benjamin says to one of the girls on stage, shouting above the pop music blaring from the speaker system.

The small, dingy bar, which Benjamin says he owns, is called Crow Bar. It's in a rundown part of the picturesque Subic Bay in the western Philippines, about a three hour drive from the capital, Manila. Home for 50 years to a United States naval base, Subic Bay has become synonymous with foreigners looking for sex in the long string of bars that line the main road along the coast.

Watch the full story on "Nightline" TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET

The bars in this area are often packed with older foreign men ogling the young Filipina women available for the night for a "bar fine" of around 1,500 Filipino pesos, or just over $35. Many of the bars are owned and operated by Americans, often former military servicemen who either served on the base or whose ships docked here until the base was shuttered under political pressure in 1992.

Alleged Underage Prostitution in Philippines Watch Video

Authorities Raid Philippines Bar Suspected of Underage Prostitution Watch Video

Innocence for Sale: US Dollars Fund Philippines Sex Trade Watch Video

Most of the prostitutes working in the bars are indeed 18 or older. But in the Philippines, just a small scratch to the surface can reveal a layer of young, underage girls who have mostly come from impoverished rural provinces to sell their bodies to help support their families.

Benjamin, 49, is, according to his own statements, one of the countless foreigners who has moved beyond just having sex with underage girls to owning and operating a bar where girls in scantily-clad outfits flaunt their bodies for patrons.

"My wife recently found out that I have this place," he tells an ABC News "Nightline" team, unaware they are journalists and recording the conversation on tiny hidden cameras disguised as shirt buttons.

Benjamin said that a "disgruntled waitress" had written his wife on Facebook, detailing his activities in Subic Bay.

"She sent her this thing saying that I have underage girls who stayed with me, that I [have anal sex with them], I own a bar, I've got other girls that I'm putting through high school, all this other crap," he said.

"All of which is true," he laughed. "However, I have to deny."

He sends a text message summoning his current girlfriend, a petite dark-skinned girl called Jade, who he said is just 16 years old. Benjamin says he bought the bar for her about a year ago and while most still call it Crow Bar, he officially re-named it with her last name.

"She needed a place to stay, I needed a place to do her. I bought a bar for her," he says, explaining that she lives in a house out back by the beach.

"You're not going to find anything like this in the States, not as a guy my age," he said as he looked down at Jade. "Ain't going to happen."

Benjamin is the latest target of Father Shay Cullen, a Catholic priest with a thick Irish brogue and fluency in the local language, Tagalog. Through his non-profit center called Preda, he's been crusading against underage sex trafficking in the Philippines for 40 years.

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ESM Goh calls on S.Korea new leader

SINGAPORE: Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong called on the President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Madam Park Geun-hye in Seoul on Monday evening.

Mr Goh had attended President Park's inauguration ceremony earlier in the day as Singapore's representative.

Mr Goh conveyed the well-wishes of President Tony Tan Keng Yam, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Mr Lee Kuan Yew on President Park's inauguration and encouraged President Park to visit Singapore at her earliest convenience.

Mr Goh and President Park reaffirmed the excellent relations between Singapore and the ROK and discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation.

They noted that the Korea-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) had heralded a rapid increase in bilateral trade and affirmed their desire to harness the momentum to further advance economic cooperation, including through strengthening the bilateral FTA and enhancing air connectivity.

Mr Goh and President Park also discussed developments in the region.

They noted that Singapore and the ROK shared common strategic perspectives on many international issues and agreed that countries in the region should focus on enhancing cooperation.

This would contribute to stability and growth in the broader Asian region.

- CNA/fa

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Wireless carriers seek cross-border spectrum cooperation

Telecom Italia Franco Bernabe called on governments to harmonize wireless spectrum availability to make it easier for carriers to operate globally.

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET)

BARCELONA, Spain--Mobile network operators traditionally use Mobile World Congress to call for lower taxes and more wireless spectrum. This year, a new word has entered the wish list: harmonization.

The mobile industry today must deal with a hodgepodge of electromagnetic frequencies that differ from carrier to carrier and country to country. Franco Bernabe, chief executive of Telecom Italia, wants to see not just more spectrum for wireless operators, but also spectrum that's not so fragmented.

"It's not just about having the right amount of spectrum. It's critical that the spectrum is harmonized on a global basis," Bernabe said in a speech here at the mobile.

That harmonization will increase "cost efficiencies," which is to say that the same phones and network equipment will work across a broader part of the world, he said.

Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabe called for fewer and better regulations for mobile network at Mobile World Congress 2013.

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET)

One cautionary tale about what's wrong was illustrated by the launch of
Apple's iPhone 5. "Europe supports three different LTE spectrum bands, so LTE is only enabled in certain countries and for certain operators," he said.

Trying to make the case that harmonization is good for consumers and not just carriers' bank accounts, he added that harmonization "ultimately will make mobile services more accessible and affordable for consumers" and that "users will be confident they will have service as they roam from country to country."

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson at Mobile World Congress 2013

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET)

But harmonization is easier said than done. Countries already have plenty of difficulties grappling with demand for radio-frequency spectrum even without trying to iron out cooperation with other countries.

Mobile World Congress is run by the GSMA, an association of mobile operators originally based in Europe but now spanning the globe. Year after year at the show, the operators call for more spectrum, less regulation, and less onerous taxation.

It may sound selfish, but the companies do indeed face tremendous challenges. They must build huge, complicated wireless networks, and often they're obsolete before they're even fully deployed. The current transition is to the 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) standard, which offers not just higher data-transfer speeds but also a snappier response because of lower communication delays.

LTE will further the explosion in mobile data traffic growth, which continues to explode. At AT&T, it's jumped by 30,000 percent over the last six years, said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. And China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua added, "In 2012, China Mobile data traffic volume increased by 187 percent."

The carriers must make these investments as earlier revenue sources -- voice communications and text messaging, for example -- dwindle. Replacing them are "over-the-top" (OTT) services from companies like Google and Facebook. Those services run over the carriers' networks, but the profits from them go to the OTT companies, and governments take a much more laissez-faire view of them.

"OTTs are not regulated in the same ways we are," said Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone Group during his time on the stage.

And it's hard to find new revenue sources, Guohua said. "The growth model driven by customer net addition cannot [be] sustained," he said, even in China, where there are 1.1 billion mobile phones already in the market. At the same time, competition takes place at a higher level with more companies.

"It's no longer the competition with a single company, but an ecosystem," he said, pointing to constellations of mobile devices, app stores, and online services.

One way the carriers are fighting back is with open, ecosystem-resistant technology -- specifically Firefox OS, which 18 carriers endorsed yesterday. Telefonica CEO Cesar Alierta, the earliest
Firefox partner, called Firefox OS "the answer to make the Web the platform and break monopolies."

Each of the five carrier leaders who spoke today complained about regulations -- difficulties that incumbents face with some preferential treatment of new operators, for example, and that require operators in Europe to bid for the same wireless spectrum every 15 years.

AT&T's Stephenson said he prefers the U.S. auction approach with perpetual licenses to "big blocks" of spectrum and governmental oversight that makes it possible for carrier to sell it to one another.

"In the U.S., you've seen over the last three years spectrum changing hands at a very fast pace," which means it ends up used very efficiently, Stephenson said. "The term of licensing is critical. Regulators can help spectrum be fluid and liquid." Short-term licenses mean that mobile operators can't be sure it's worthwhile to invest in network infrastructure, investments that take years to pay off.

Stephenson also called for lower taxation to encourage expensive capital equipment purchases.

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Michelle Obama makes surprise Oscars appearance

First lady Michelle Obama, on a video screen, announces the winner for best picture along with actor Jack Nicholson at the 85th annual Academy Awards on Feb. 24, 2013, in Hollywood, Calif. / Getty

First lady Michelle Obama made a surprise appearance at the Oscars, opening the envelope that contained the name of the best-picture winner, "Argo."

51 Photos

Oscars 2013: Show highlights

Appearing via streaming video from the White House, Mrs. Obama said all of the nominees demonstrated that "we can overcome any obstacle."

15 Photos

Oscars 2013: Press room

She said that message is "especially important for our young people" and thanked Hollywood for encouraging children "to open their imaginations."

The first lady was introduced by Jack Nicholson, who noted that the best picture trophy is usually announced solo.

Mrs. Obama wore a silver, art deco-inspired gown by Indian-born American fashion designer Naeem Khan. It was the same dress she wore for the Obamas' dinner with the nation's governors at the White House on Sunday night.

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Oscars 2013: 'Argo' Wins Best Picture

"Argo" took home the top prize as best picture at the Oscars Sunday night, with first lady Michelle Obama announcing the winner from the White House.

"You directed a hell of a film," co-producer Grant Heslov told director and fellow producer Ben Affleck. "I couldn't be more proud of the film and more proud of our director."

Affleck was snubbed in the directing category but humbly accepted the best picture Oscar as one of the three producers on the film. George Clooney was the third.

Affleck thanked Steven Spielberg and the other best picture nominees and his wife Jennifer Garner for "working on our marriage."

"It's good, it's work," he said, adding, "but there's no one I'd rather work with."

For Full List of Winners

Acknowledging his last Oscar win, as a screenwriter for "Good Will Hunting," Affleck said, "I was really just a kid. I never thought I would be back here."

In the acting categories, Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for best actor, being the first actor to three-peat in that category. As he accepted the award from Hollywood's greatest actress, Meryl Streep, he joked, "I had actually been committed to play Margaret Thatcher. ... Meryl was Stephen's first choice for Lincoln."

He also thanked his wife, Rebecca Miller, for "living with some very strange men," with each new role that he takes on.

"She's the versatile one in the family and she's been the perfect companion to all of them," he said.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Daniel Day-Lewis Gets Laughs With Oscars Speech Watch Video

Jennifer Lawrence won the award for best actress. She tripped on the stairs on her way to accepting her award but picked herself up and made her way to the stage, earning a standing ovation.

"You're just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that's embarrassing," she said, before rattling off a list of thank-yous and leaving the stage looking slightly stunned.

Watch Jennifer Lawrence's Oscar Tumble

"Life of Pi," which had a total of 11 nominations, was another big winner of the night. Director Ang Lee took home the Oscar for best director over Steven Spielberg and David O. Russell.

"Thank you, movie god," Lee said, accepting his award.

As expected, the film took home the first technical awards of the night for cinematography and visual effects. "Life of Pi" also won for best original score.

The first big acting awards of the night went to Christoph Waltz and Anne Hathaway in the supporting actor categories.

In one of the biggest tossups, Waltz claimed the award for supporting actor for his role in "Django Unchained." It was his second Oscar for a Quentin Tarantino film; his first was for Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."

PHOTOS: Stars on the Red Carpet

As expected, Hathaway took home the award for best supporting actress for her role as Fantine in "Les Miserables."

"It came true," she said, launching into a breathy speech, in which she thanked the cast and crew, her team and her husband. "The greatest moment of my life was when you walked into it," she said.

Tarantino won the Oscar for best original screenplay for his slave revenge western "Django Unchained." He thanked his cast.

"I have to cast the right people," he said. "And boy this time did I do it."

Chris Terrio won the award for best adapted screenplay for "Argo," which also won for film editing.

For only the sixth time in Academy history, there was a tie at the Oscars. "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Skyfall" tied for sound editing.

See Other Ties in Academy History

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Frustrated Italians vote in crucial election for euro zone

ROME (Reuters) - Italians voted on Sunday in one of the most closely watched and unpredictable elections in years, with pent-up fury over a discredited elite adding to concern it may not produce a government strong enough to lead Italy out of an economic slump.

The election, which concludes on Monday afternoon, is being followed closely by investors; their memories are still fresh of the potentially catastrophic debt crisis that saw Mario Monti, an economics professor and former bureaucrat, summoned to serve as prime minister in place of Silvio Berlusconi 15 months ago.

A weak Italian government could, many fear, prompt a new dip in confidence in the European Union's single currency.

Opinion polls give the center-left a narrow lead but the result has been thrown completely open by the prospect of a huge protest vote against the painful austerity measures imposed by Monti's government and deep anger over a never-ending series of corruption scandals. Berlusconi's centre-right has also revived.

"I'm not confident that the government that emerges from the election will be able to solve any of our problems," said Attilio Bianchetti, a 55-year-old builder in Milan, who voted for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic and blogger Beppe Grillo.

The 64-year-old Grillo, heavily backed by a frustrated generation of young Italians hit by record unemployment, has been one of the biggest features of the last stage of the campaign, packing rallies in town squares up and down Italy.

"He's the only real new element in a political landscape where we've been seeing the same faces for too long," said Vincenzo Cannizzaro, 48, in the Sicialian capital Palermo.

Italians started voting at 8 a.m. (0700 GMT). Polling booths will remain open until 10 p.m. on Sunday and open again between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Monday. Exit polls will come out soon after voting ends and official results are expected by early Tuesday.

Snow in northern regions is expected to last into Monday and could discourage some of the 47 million people eligible to vote in Italy to head out to polling stations, though the Interior Ministry has said it is fully prepared for bad weather.

Monti and his wife cast their votes at a polling booth in a Milan school on Sunday morning and centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader opinion polls suggest will have to form a new government, voted in his home town of Piacenza.

A small group of women's rights demonstrators greeted former prime minister Berlusconi when he voted in Milan. They bared their breasts in protest at the conservative leader, who is on trial at present for having sex with an underage prostitute.

Whichever government emerges from the election will have to tackle reforms needed to address problems that have given Italy one of the most sluggish economies in the developed world for the past two decades.

But the widespread despair over the state of the country, where a series of corruption scandals has highlighted the stark divide between a privileged political elite and millions of ordinary Italians, has left deep scars.

"It's our fault, Italian citizens. It's our closed mentality. We're just not Europeans," said Luciana Li Mandri, a 37-year-old public servant in Palermo.

"We're all about getting favors when we study, getting a protected job when we work. That's the way we are and we can only be represented by people like that as well," she said.

FRUSTRATION

Final polls published two weeks ago showed center-left leader Bersani with a 5-point lead, but analysts disagree about whether he will be able to form a stable majority that can make the economic reforms they believe Italy needs.

While the center left is still expected to gain control of the lower house, thanks to rules that guarantee a strong majority to whichever party wins the most votes nationally, a much closer battle will be fought for the Senate, which any government also needs to control to be able to pass laws.

The euro zone's third-largest economy is stuck in deep recession, struggling under a public debt burden second only to Greece in the 17-member currency bloc and with a public weary of more than a year of austerity policies.

Bersani is now thought to be just a few points ahead of media magnate Berlusconi, the four-times prime minister who has promised tax refunds and staged a media blitz in an attempt to win back voters.

Think-tank consultant Mario, 60, who was on his way to vote in Bologna, said Bersani's Democratic Party was the only serious grouping that could help solve the country's economic woes.

"They're not perfect," he said. "But they've got the organization and the union backing that will help them push through the structural reforms."

A strong fightback by Berlusconi, who has promised to repay a widely hated housing tax, the IMU, imposed by Monti last year, saw his support climb during a campaign that relentlessly attacked the "German-centric" austerity policies of the former European Union commissioner.

"I won't vote for Monti, and I don't think a lot of people will. He made a huge blunder with IMU," said 35-year-old hairdresser Marco Morando, preparing to vote in Milan.

But the populist frustration Berlusconi's campaign tapped into has also benefitted Grillo and many pollsters said his 5-Star Movement, made up of political novices, was challenging the center-right for the position as second political force.

"I'm very worried. There seems to be no way out from a political point of view, or from being able to govern," said Calogero Giallanza, a 45-year-old musician in Rome, who voted for Bersani's Democrats.

"There's bound to be a mess in the Senate because, as far as I can see, the 5-Star Movement is unstoppable."

(Additional reporting by Cristiano Corvino, Lisa Jucca, Jennifer Clark, Matthias Baehr and Sara Rossi in Milan, Stephen Jewkes in Bologna, Wladimir Pantaleone in Palermo, Stefano Bernabei and Massimiliano Di Giorgio in Rome; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Alastair Macdonald)

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Pope celebrates emotional last Sunday prayer

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI delivered an emotional last Sunday prayer in St Peter's Square, saying God had told him to devote himself to prayer but assuring supporters he would not "abandon" the Church.

Tens of thousands of supporters turned out for the historic prayers ahead of the pope's formal resignation on Thursday, often interrupting the pope with their clapping, cheering and chanting.

"The Lord is calling me to climb the mountain, to dedicate myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church," the pope told the crowd from the window of his residence in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

"If God is asking me to do this, it is precisely so I can continue to serve with the same dedication and love as before but in a way that is more appropriate for my age and for my strength."

The 85-year-old leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics has said he will step down because he no longer has the strength of mind and body to carry on.

His shock resignation ended an eight-year pontificate dominated by the priest child sex abuse scandal and efforts to counter rising secularism in the West.

He thanked the crowd with a final unscripted call, telling them: "We will always be close!"

The Vatican and Rome police estimated the numbers at more than 100,000 people -- many times more than usually attend the traditional Sunday prayer.

"Holy Father, We Love You", read one banner seen in the crowd. One read: "Thank You, Your Holiness" and another said: "Dear Father, We'll Miss You".

"I have come to support the pope and to ask for his blessing," said Joao-Paulo, a 26-year-old trainee priest from Brazil who came with fellow seminarians.

Birgit Marschall, 37, a teacher from Germany, said: "He is an intellectual who speaks in simple language, who writes what we have in our hearts."

Claire Therese Heyne, a 34-year-old theology student from the United States, said the pope "must have had a very strong reason" to leave.

"It is an act of courage and humility," she said.

Benedict will be only the second pope to resign of his own free will in the Church's 2,000-year history, and the first to do so since the Middle Ages.

But Gianpaolo, 33, said Benedict had been "less courageous" than his predecessors, and many people looked ahead to the pope's successor and stressed the need for major reforms.

"The Church has to have a major reflection after this resignation. Something has changed inside the Church and this decision reflects this," said Gianpaolo, who came with his two sons.

Forty-five-year old Linda came from Wales in Britain for the event, saying: "He was not so open as the last popes before him. A new pope should be more open to people, to new ideas."

There was tight security in and around the Vatican, with more than 100 police officers and snipers on surrounding buildings, as well as two field clinics and hundreds of volunteers to help pilgrims.

The security is being seen as preparation for the pope's final general audience in St Peter's on Wednesday where around 200,000 people are expected.

Some Italian media have speculated his health may be far worse than the Vatican revealed, and others have said an explosive report into the "Vatileaks" scandal may be to blame.

The Vatican's Secretariat of State -- effectively the government of the Catholic Church -- took the unusual step on Saturday of issuing a formal statement condemning "completely false news stories".

The Panorama news weekly and the Repubblica daily said a report by a committee of cardinals into the leaks of confidential papal papers last year had uncovered allegations of intrigue, corruption and blackmail in the Vatican.

No clear favourite has emerged to succeed Joseph Ratzinger. But many observers say the cardinals, who make the choice, may plump for a much younger candidate who is a more pastoral figure than the academic Benedict.

A series of meetings of cardinals starting Friday will determine the date of the start of the conclave to elect a new pope. The Vatican has hinted that it could be brought forward to early March since there is no papal funeral.

Conclaves can last for days before a candidate wins a two-thirds majority.

The Vatican has said Benedict will retire to the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome for the next two or three months while a former monastery inside the Vatican is renovated.

Benedict has said he will live "hidden from the world" but Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has said he could provide "spiritual guidance" to his successor and will likely continue to publish his theological research.

- AFP/fa

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