TO ELECT NEW POPE Cardinals expected to pick conclave date

Red-robed cardinals were expected on Monday to pick a date for the conclave to elect a new leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, following the death of Pope Francis.

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Dozens of so-called “Princes of the Church” met at 9:00 am (0700 GMT) at the Vatican, with speculation growing that the secretive election process could begin on Monday May 5, the day after the nine days of formal Vatican mourning ends.

The Church's 252 cardinals were called back to Rome following the death of Francis on April 21, although only 135 are aged under 80 and therefore eligible to vote for a new pope.

They hail from all corners of the globe and many of them do not know each other.

But they already had four meetings last week, so-called “general congregations”, where they began to get better acquainted.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, 83, a former head of the Italian bishops' conference, said there was a “beautiful, fraternal atmosphere”.

"Of course, there may be some difficulties because the voters have never been so numerous and not everyone knows each other,” he told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.

So far there are few clues as to who they might choose.

"I believe that if Francis has been the pope of surprises, this conclave will be too, as it is not at all predictable,” Spanish Cardinal Jose Cobo told El Pais in an interview published on Sunday.