Increased security during Pope visit to Rome soup kitchen

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict shared a meal with the homeless, poor and elderly on Sunday during a visit to a soup kitchen marked by increased security following the incident in which a woman knocked him down during Christmas Eve Mass.

The pope spent several hours at the soup kitchen run by the Sant' Egidio Community, a lay Catholic group that has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Benedict, who appeared in good form, ate with 150 people and sat next to Qorbanali Esmaili, a 34-year-old Afghan Muslim who has political refugee status and has been in Italy for 10 years.

Others at his table included a 90-year-old Italian widower, a 24-year-old gypsy man, a 62-year-old Somali woman and a 35-year-old Nigerian man.

When the pope leaves the Vatican, much of the security is provided by Italian police who join the Vatican security detail that was protecting him on Christmas Eve.

The number of both Italian and Vatican security personnel seemed greater on Sunday than in past visits in Rome.

Vatican security has been under a cloud since Thursday night when Susanna Maiolo, 25, an Italian-Swiss national, vaulted over a barricade in St Peter's Basilica, lunged at the pope, grabbed his vestments and pulled him to the floor.

Vatican officials made it a point to line up a large group of children behind a barrier on the sidewalk so he could greet them.

Vatican sources say security will be reviewed but that they will not take any action that would impede the pope from direct contact with crowds -- something they wanted to hammer home to the media on Sunday by allowing him to greet many in the crowd.

The Vatican said it has not yet decided whether to take legal action against Maiolo, who has a history of mental problems and is now in an Italian psychiatric institution.

The Vatican has come under criticism because Maiolo had tried last year at the same Christmas Eve event to jump over the barricade and lunge at the pope but was that time blocked.

The Vatican said that French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, who broke a femur bone when he fell in the basilica during the incident, had undergone surgery and was in good condition.