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Pope to visit Israel early 2007

Updated: 07/Apr/2006 16:01

Pope Benedict XVI

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Pope Benedict XVI is to visit Israel early next year, the Jewish state’s former premier Shimon Peres said Thursday after an audience with the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Peres told reporters that the 78-year-old German pontiff had accepted an invitation to visit from acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"The pope said he will go in the first months of next year," Peres said.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav had already last November issued a formal invitation to Benedict but no date had been set.

A statement from Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope and Pires had discussed the Middle East peace process and "were unanimous in condemning all forms of terrorism no matter what the pretext for its justification."

Benedict’s predecessor, the late John Paul II, visited Israel and the
Palestinian-controlled West Bank in March 2000. The first papal trip to Israel came in 1964, when Pope Paul VI visited the country.

Peres arrived in Rome on Thursday for a meeting with Benedict to ask him to join a boycott of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government, according to Israel’s military radio.

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