The Turk who shot pope John Paul II in St Peter's Square in 1981, claimed in a new book Friday that the founder of the Iranian revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, told him to do it.

Mehmet Ali Agca, a former far-right extremist and Islamic fundamentalist, said he was "indoctrinated" in Tehran after escaping from a Turkish prison where he was serving time for killing a journalist.

At a night-time meeting with Khomeini, Ali Agca said the Supreme Guide of the Iranian revolution told him to kill the Polish pope  who was badly wounded but survived the assassination attempt.

"You have to kill the pope in the name of Allah. You have to kill the devil's mouthpiece on earth," Ali Agca said the Ayatollah Khomeini told him. The book has been published in Italian, titled I Was Promised Paradise.

Following his arrest, Ali Agca initially said the assassination attempt had been organised by the Soviet KGB and a group of Bulgarian diplomats.

He has since been diagnosed with mental problems.

Ali Agca gave details of his meeting with John Paul II who famously came to visit him in a Rome prison in 1983 and forgave him.

The Vatican, however, dismissed Agca's latest claim about who ordered him to assassinate Pope John Paul II, Associated Press reported.

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