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VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI condemned terrorism as a "moral perversion" and demanded religious freedom around the globe in an annual speech Monday to Vatican-based diplomats outlining the Vatican's foreign policy priorities.

Benedict stressed the need for forgiveness and reconciliation to bring about peace in conflicts from the Middle East to Africa. And he told the ambassadors that wealthy countries must do more for the world's poor, saying that even half of what they spend on weapons "would be more than sufficient to liberate the immense masses of the poor from destitution."

The pope mentioned a few conflicts in particular, reaffirming that Israel has a right to live in peace "in conformity with the norms of international law," while the Palestinians must be allowed to develop democratic institutions for their future.

He said forgiveness was particularly necessary in the Middle East, and especially in Iraq, "which in the past years has suffered daily from violent acts of terrorism." He also mentioned Africa's Great Lakes region and Darfur, Sudan, where "defenseless people (have been) subject to deplorable violence."

But he spent the bulk of his speech, delivered in French, arguing that world peace can only come from a search for truth, and that truth brings about reconciliation and hope for the future.

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