VATICAN CITY: The College of Cardinals yesterday set 18 April as the date for the start of the conclave to elect a successor to His Holiness, the late Pope John Paul II, as the Vatican made final arrangements for the funeral expected to draw millions of pilgrims and world leaders to Rome.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the cardinals would celebrate a morning Mass on 18 April and then be sequestered in the Sistine Chapel in the early afternoon to start the conclave. According to church law, prelates are expected to hold one ballot on the first day of a conclave.

The date was set on the third day of preparatory meetings of cardinals, who are flocking to Rome for tomorrow’s funeral and burial of His Holiness Pope John Paul II, who died on Saturday after a 26-year term as the leader of the world’s one billion Roman Catholics.

During yesterday’s session, cardinals also read Pope John Paul II’s spiritual testament, a 15-page document written in his native Polish over the course of his pontificate starting in 1979, a year after he was elected, the spokesman said.

In it, the Pope did not name the in pectore cardinal he created in 2003, thus ending speculation that a last-minute cardinal might join in the 18 April start of the conclave.

John Paul created the in pectore or “in the heart” cardinal in his last consistory. The formula is used when a Pope wants to name a cardinal from a country where the church is oppressed.

There had been speculation that the cardinal might be a prelate from China, where the authorities only recognise a state-sanctioned church.

Copies of Pope John Paul’s testament – in Polish along with an Italian translation – are expected to be released today, Navarro-Valls said.

Chicago Cardinal Francis George told CNN the document was a “very, very moving, spiritual testament of a man who lived with the Lord”.

The number of cardinal electors – those under 80 and thus eligible to vote – who will enter the conclave yesterday stood at 116, after the Philippines Embassy to the Holy See confirmed that Cardinal Jaime Sin, 76, was too ill to attend. Sin had been one of only three cardinal electors who also took part in the 1978 conclave to elect Pope John Paul.

When the cardinals decide on a candidate, the traditional white smoke that for centuries has announced the selection of a new Pope to the world will be joined by the tolling of bells. The move is designed to avoid confusion over the colour of smoke coming from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel: black smoke means no two-thirds majority has been reached during a round of balloting while white smoke means a majority has determined the next Pope.

In another change from past papal elections, cardinals voting in the conclave will have access to all of the Vatican City during the election, as opposed to being sequestered in the Sistine Chapel and allowed to sleep only in the adjoining Apostolic Palace.

Navarro-Valls ruled out that the late Pope’s body might be taken to St John Lateran Basilica, across Rome as was done for Pope Pius XII when he died in 1958.

Navarro-Valls said that with such crowds already converging on Rome, the Vatican could not meet the request. Instead, Pope John Paul will be buried immediately after the funeral in the grotto under St Peter’s Basilica, he said.

Giant television screens, however, will be set up at St John Lateran, so that crowds who gather there will be able to view the funeral proceedings, he said.

Pilgrims continued to flock to St Peter’s Basilica yesterday, jamming up streets as they waited for up to 12 hours to pay their final respects to Pope John Paul, who has been lying in state in the basilica since Monday afternoon.

According to calculations by the Italian civil protection department, more than one million pilgrims will have filed solemnly by the crimson-robed body by the end of yesterday, at a rate of about 15,000-18,000 people an hour in a nearly around-the-clock procession.

The crush of pilgrims on the road leading to the Vatican will rise sharply when an expected two million Poles arrive in Rome for the funeral.

“It’s a miracle,” said German Cardinal Walter Kasper, surveying the crowd as he arrived for yesterday’s meeting of cardinals.

Italian Cardinal Pio Laghi told reporters the scene was like a cloud, “but it is a cloud that is luminous and full of life”.

Italy was calling in extra police to the capital and planned to seal off much of the Eternal City tomorrow so as to protect a VIP contingent that will include US President George W. Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the presidents of Syria as well as Iran, among other heads of state.

Pope John Paul made his wish known “to be buried in the ground,” said Archbishop Piero Marini, a longtime close aide as papal master of ceremonies. He said Pope John Paul would be buried with a white silk veil on his face, his body clad in liturgical vestments and the white miter. Keeping with tradition, his remains will be placed in three coffins – wood, zinc and wood – a design meant to slow down the decomposition process.

A small bag of commemorative medals issued over the course of his 26-year pontificate as well as a sealed document featuring a brief description of Pope John Paul’s life, will be buried with him.

Polish wishes that soil from the pope’s native country be placed in the coffin will go unfulfilled, he continued.

In other developments, Pope John Paul’s personal physician was quoted as telling La Repubblica newspaper that the Pope “passed away slowly, with pain and suffering which he endured with great human

dignity.

“The Holy Father could not utter a single word before passing away,” Dr Renato Buzzonetti was quoted as saying. “Just as happened in the last days he could not speak, he was forced to silence.”