JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet with Pope Benedict XVI
during a trip to Europe next week, officials said Thursday.
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
arrives to a conference in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi Tuesday
Dec. 5, 2006. [AP]
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Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri
Eisin, said the meeting will take place at the Vatican on Wednesday. There were
no immediate details on the agenda.
While such meetings are rare, it is not the first time an Israeli leader will
meet with the leader of the world's Roman Catholics. Israel and the Vatican
established diplomatic relations in the 1990s, and the late Pope John Paul II
hosted Israeli prime ministers and other officials as part of his effort to
build ties with the Jewish state.