Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday named 23 new cardinals, including 18 who will join the group of 'princes of the Church' who must elect a successor when a pontiff dies.
Five of the cardinals named by the 80-year-old pope will not be able to take place in a future conclave because they are over the 80-year age limit.
In a sign of his attention to the Church in Iraq, the pope included among them Msgr Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq.
With the new cardinal 'electors', there are now 121 prelates in the elite group which can take part in a conclave to elect a new pope.
All 23 are scheduled to receive their distinctive red hats from Benedict at a consistory ceremony in the Vatican on November 24.
"The new cardinals come from various parts of the world and the universality of the Church is well reflected in their ranks," Benedict said after reading out the names at the end of his Wednesday general audience.
Four of the new cardinal electors are Italians. They include Monsignor Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian bishops' conference and archbishop of Genoa.
There are six other Europeans: two from Spain, one from Germany, one from France, one from Poland and one from Ireland.
Of the non-Europeans, two are from the United States, two from Africa, three from Latin America and one from Asia.
The pope, who will be creating his second batch of cardinals on November 24, said there were many other prelates who deserved a cardinal's red hat.
"I hope in the future to have the opportunity to show them my esteem and affection in this way," he said.
Of the 18 cardinal electors, seven are high-up officials in the Roman Curia and 11 are archbishops. The Curia veterans include Monsignor John Foley, the American who headed the Pontifical Council for Social Communications till recently.
The pastoral appointments include André Vingt-Trois, the archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Seán Baptist Brady, the archbishop of Armagh in Ireland and Monsignor Daniel DiNardo, the archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas.
