By Philip Pullella and Crispian Balmer

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul appeared close to death on Friday after heart failure, the Vatican said, sparking an outpouring of emotion and anxiety around the Roman Catholic world.

Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the 84-year-old Pope had received the "Holy Viaticum" communion, reserved for those near death, and had told his aides he did not want to return to hospital for treatment.

A Vatican statement said the Pope was still "conscious, lucid and tranquil" and had taken Mass as dawn broke, but senior clergy indicated his life was ebbing away.

"He is fading serenely," Polish Cardinal Andrzej Maria Deskur, a close friend, was quoted as saying by Agi news agency. A new health bulletin was due at around 5:30 a.m.-6 a.m. EST, after the Vatican angrily dismissed as "rubbish" Italian media reports that the Pope was in a coma.

Our prayers are constantly with his pointiff By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer  VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II is getting nutrition from a tube in his nose, the Vatican said Wednesday, shortly after the frail pontiff appeared at his window in St. Peter's Square and managed only a rasp when he tried to speak.  Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the step was taken to "improve the pope's calorie intake" and so he can recover his strength. It was unclear when the tube was inserted but it was not visible when John Paul made his appearance. The tube is not the only source of nutrition for the pope, a Vatican official said on condition of anonymity. Asked about reports of a possible hospitalization, the official said there were no plans at this time and any decision would be up to his doctors.

BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister-designate Omar Karameh has stalled on his plan to resign in the latest setback for efforts to form a new government to organise elections due in May.  The opposition, meanwhile, welcomed Syria's pledge to the United Nations on Wednesday to complete a troop withdrawal from Lebanon ahead of the parliamentary polls. Karameh said he first needed to consult his allies in the pro-Syrian camp before giving up on efforts to form a national unity government in the wake of the February 14 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri. "I have informed Mr Lahoud that I am preparing to announce my decision," he said after talks with President Emile Lahoud.

By Lin Noueihed BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister is expected to step down this week after he failed to persuade opposition figures to join a government that could run the country until elections in May, associates said on Tuesday.  Omar Karami resigned a month ago after coming under immense popular pressure from Lebanese angered by the killing of his predecessor Rafik al-Hariri. But he was reappointed by parliament to form a national unity government bringing together both anti-Syrian opposition members and pro-Syrian loyalists. Lebanon's opposition, which blames Syria and the Lebanese security agencies it backs for Hariri's death, has refused to join any government until after elections it believes will give it a majority in a chamber now largely allied to Damascus.