Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse is meeting Pope Benedict on Friday.
The Vatican says it has urged the Sri Lankan authorities to resume negotiations with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
The Pope has been urged by aid agencies to raise concerns about the escalating conflict between the Sri Lankan forces and the Tamil Tigers.
Pope Benedict stressed the need to respect human rights during talks he held with visiting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.
The Catholic charity Caritas, which works in north-eastern Sri Lanka, says more than 40,000 people have been displaced in the last month alone.
The Pope called the escalating conflict in Sri Lanka dramatic.
The Pope said in his Easter address that "only a negotiated solution" could end the country's civil war.
The Catholic charity Caritas says more than 40,000 people have been displaced in the last month alone.
Mr Rajapakse's meeting with the Pope comes during a three day official visit to Italy.
President Rajapakse is on a three day official visit to Italy.
'Open prison'
The conflict between the Sri Lankan Forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers is taking a heavy toll.
The Sri Lankan conflict is taking a heavy toll on both sides
Caritas says the district of Jaffna in the north-east of the country is now an "open prison".
The only land route was closed in August last year cutting off essential humanitarian aid.
The Secretary General of the charity, Duncan McClaren, said he welcomed the Pope's intervention.
"We hope the meeting inspires President Mahinda Rajapakse to seek every peaceful means," he said, "and we hope it will resolve the crisis in his country."
Death threats
Another group, the New York-based Human Rights Watch, has urged the Pope to raise the increasing issue of human rights violations in Sri Lanka.
It is believed to be the first time the president will meet the Pope
The group says both sides involved in the conflict continue with summary executions and intimidation of reporters and clergy.
They are particularly concerned about the disappearance of a Roman Catholic priest who went missing in August last year at a Sri Lankan navy checkpoint on an island near the northern Jaffna peninsula.
He had reportedly received death threats from senior navy personnel.
