Cardinals from around the globe will hold a conclave to elect a new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics next week.

Cardinals from around the globe will hold a conclave to elect a new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics next week, the Vatican said, although the exact date will be set later on Friday.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said a meeting of cardinals would take a vote on the date for the start of the conclave.

The Vatican said all 115 "cardinal electors" who will vote in the conclave are now in Rome.

The closed-door talks are protected by an oath of secrecy, but the voices calling for change have been growing louder after the first papal resignation since the Middle Ages.

Vatican watchers suggested the cardinals were split roughly into two groups, between those who think that Italy's Angelo Scola, the Archbishop of Milan, is the man to tackle the Curia, and those who want a foreign leader to carry out reforms.