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Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, said that support from Cardinal Renato Martino and other Vatican officials had helped the family "spiritually" in their unsuccessful battle against a court order to have Schiavo's feeding tube removed.

"Just knowing that he supported us gave us strength," said Schiavo's mother, Mary Schindler, following a 15-minute private audience with Martino.

Schiavo died March 31 in a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after the tube was removed.

Iranian foreign minister holds historic talks in Iraq

BAGHDAD - Iran's foreign minister made a historic trip to Baghdad on Tuesday, pledging to secure his country's borders to stop militants from entering Iraq and saying the "situation would have been much worse" if Tehran were actually supporting the insurgency as the U.S. has claimed.

Iranian envoy Kamal Kharrazi's trip - two days after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to support the war-ravaged country's political process - was the highest-level visit by an official from any of Iraq's six neighboring countries since Saddam Hussein's ouster two years ago.

Kharrazi, who held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on a day of deepening sectarian violence, vowed that his country was committed to supporting Iraq's political and economic reconstruction and would do all it could to improve security conditions.

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China currency demand: The Bush administration warned China on Tuesday that it could be cited as a currency manipulator and face economic sanctions unless it moves swiftly to overhaul its currency system. The administration has been prodding China in earnest over the last two years to stop linking its currency, the yuan, to the U.S. dollar. Manufacturers contend China's currency system puts U.S. companies at a big competitive disadvantage.

On Wall Street, stocks vaulted higher after the Treasury Department announcement. The Dow Jones industrials gained 79.59 points to close at 10,331.88.