ROME – Senior Vatican officials have decided to put aside their differences with Prime Minister Blair over the war in Iraq, calling for multinational troop reinforcements to secure the country’s fledgling democracy.

In February last year, both Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, offered some of the fiercest denunciations of Mr. Blair and President Bush for their strike on Saddam Hussein. Their private criticism of Mr. Blair was made embarrassingly public by Vatican officials, who revealed at a press conference that the Pope had urged him to “make use of all the resources offered by international law to avoid the tragedy of war.”

Now, in light of the postwar chaos, Cardinal Sodano has announced a newly hawkish line on Iraq from Rome. “The child has been born,” he declared recently on behalf of the Vatican. “It may be illegitimate, but it’s here, and it must be reared and educated.” Despite the Vatican’s vociferous opposition to the war, the bloody terrorist attacks have convinced the pope that only an increased military presence, including NATO troops, can secure peace.